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THE 



DESTRUCTION 



POVERTY. 



CHARLES H. ROBINSON. 



Rich men sin, and I eat root.'' 

— TiMON OF Athens. 



PRINTED FOR THF, AUTHOR BY 




a68 AND 270 CANAL STREET 



rll' 



I H958 



Copyright, 1898, 
By Charles H. Robinson. 



TiyOCOPrESSEceVED. 




PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

James G. Blaine repeatedly declared in public 
speeches, particularly during his Presidential cam- 
paign, that: "This country will support many more 
millions than it at present contains," and "It is con- 
ceded that this country produces more than any 
other." 

A citizen who was not carried away by the glittering 
generalities of campaign speeches propounded Mr. 
Blaine, in a private letter, the following queries: 

"First. — If it be true that this country will support 
many more millions than it now contains, why does it 
not support the people it already contains?" 

"Second. — If this country produces more than any 
other, why should we fear competition?" 

The questions were ignored, and they never have 
been answered by any candidate for a high or low 
political office. To every American citizen able to 
penetrate the selfish motives and personal schemes 
behind the catch-vote delusions of party platforms, 
these questions merit a full answer, and they are an- 
swered in this book. 

There is no reason why poverty should exist in the 
United States, for the causes which create and perpetu- 
ate it in other countries do not obtain here, indeed it 
is not an element in our American civilization, because 
our system of government tends to prevent it. But 
poverty does exist here, the same as under a personal 
form of government, and the cry of the rich growing 
richer, and the poor, poorer, will not down. It is a 
fact, and the question is, why is it a patent fact? 

9 



10 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

Why is it that a few people get all the money and J 
the great majority none at all, or at most, just enough j 
to enable them to exist? ) 

Why should an American citizen see no hope in the '' 
future for himself or for his children — no betterment? ] 

Why are capital and labor arrayed against each ) 
other in such a country as this, where their interests ' 
are joint and their union would give every one enough . 
and to spare? l 

Why is it that in a country whose waste products | 
equal four pounds of bread and meat per capita of its ", 
population, a multitude clamor for bread and an army i 
is fed by the hand of charity? \ 

Is it true that if the money were taken away from ■ 
those who own or control it all and given to those who , 
starve for the want of it, it would all drift back again ; 
and conditions remain the same? If so there is some- ■ 
thing wrong in the manipulation of it, for the poor are ; 
neither fools nor spendthrifts. Perhaps there is rob- j 
bery. I 

There are more causes which lead to poverty besides ; 
lack of money than most people imagine; causes, >. 
which if properly understood, could be removed. It ' 
was a wise man who said: '*A man is not poor be- i 
cause he has no money, but because he has no work;" ; 
an absolute truth at the present time. It is customary, ; 
however, to regard money as the panacea for the i 
miseries of poverty, and in the pursuit of it alone, as ■ 
the great preventive, other insidious causes work , 
quietly in the direction of its perpetuation. There ; 
are gathered in this book other causes which foster 
poverty and fasten a multitude down in its slough of I 
misery, and it is hoped that the knowledge of them will i 
bring about a desire to effect a radical change that \ 
must be productive of good. i 

There is no relief to be expected from politics per ■ 
se, and the proof of that lies in the fact that they never I 
have done anything for the welfare of the people. The i 



PRELIMINARY ui:MARKS. ii 

rights of individuals are sacrificed and dominated by 
the claims of partisanship and the public good and the 
welfare of the people are limited to the officeholder 
and his backers. True, we have a great and glorious 
country, replete with stately monuments, magnificent 
palaces, gorgeous temples, costly schoolhouses and 
manufactories galore; yet people starve, labor is unem- 
ployed, or at the mercy of capital in the matter of 
wages. Rome, Athens, Egypt, had all these things 
long before us, and, hovering over our majestic insti- 
tutions, we can see the shadows of want, penury, pov- 
erty, starvation and the oppression of labor, the same 
as those which still haunt the ruins of the magnificence 
of great but dead nations. It is painful to record the 
sufTerings of a people under a system such as ours, 
elastic enough to prevent the money power from as- 
suming and repeating the functions of the Pharaohs, 
the Caesars, whose mere will was law, and when we 
say that it is time for a new Declaration of Independ- 
ence it is not meant that it should be directed against 
our system of government, but against the system of 
politics that manages its affairs for the benefit of the 
money power exclusively. 

At every election political parties with a flourish of 
trumpets announce various general principles that do 
not strike at the root of the evils to which the people 
are subjected, but those evils are buried under expres- 
sions of sympathy for the downtrodden of every other 
nation but our own, or are directed against some great 
public steal by the party in power, and do not attempt 
to cure anything. 

The men who are armed with the ballot are kings 
if they only could be persuaded of it, and not slaves to 
be whipped into the traces of any caucus, ring, gang 
or party. Yet, how does it happen that the creatures 
of the ballot have become its miasters? Our remedy is 
under our own system of government and not in ideas 
emanating from foreign sources. The balance of 



12 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

power is small and the opportunities for holding it 
magnificently great. Shall the people hold that bal- 
ance of power, or shall the selfish politicians and the 
njoney power retain it? If the former, then the 
troubles which afflict us will quickly disappear; if the 
latter we shall progress still further and deeper into 
abject slavery, a slavery that refuses to even feed its 
slaves. 

Let no man with an ''ism" or an untried experiment 
evolved from some foreign source be the guide, but 
let the foot of public welfare and of individual rights 
be pressed down hard upon the necks of the false 
prophets who cry: "Lo, here is Christ! Lo, there is 
Christ!" when he is nowhere. Their dogma is: "Ser- 
vants, obey your masters," and they constitute them- 
selves your masters, and out of their own whims, fan- 
cies and bigotry, evolve rules which you must follow or 
suffer the pains and penalties inflicted by a municipal 
Inquisition, over which they preside. 



SYNOPSIS. 



CHAPTER I. 

A PERIOD OF UNREST.— There is something 
radically wrong with mankind. Hunger, Dys- 
pepsia, Conscience, and perhaps Remorse, give 
us Insomnia. / 

CHAPTER II. 

AN ERA OF CONFIDENCE.— This is the other 
side of the question, but on close examination 
it does not come up to the expectations. Con- 
fidence is not yet sufficient security for a loan 
of money. 

CHAPTER HI. 

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?— 
The chances are that if we do not begin doing 
something very soon we shall not have an op- 
portunity to do anything. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE COMING CAESAR.— We are drifting in the 
direction of a curious condition of things, -and 
the more we struggle to avoid it, the nearer 
we approach it. 

13 



14 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

CHAPTER V. I 

THE SOCIAL CRIME.— If society takes charge of 
human affairs, it must pay the price. Its man- 
agement up to the present time has not proved 
a magnificent success. 

CHAPTER VI. 

E PLURIBUS UNUM.— We may be able to find 
something to comfort us behind this es- 
cutcheon. 

CHAPTER VII. 

E PLURIBUS UNUM (Continued).— We are on the 
right track, but, to be sure, let us look further 
into it. 

i 
CHAPTER VIII. i 



COORDINATE BRANCHES OF GOVERN- 
MENT.— How "E Pluribus Unum" should 
operate and how it does not. 

CHAPTER IX. 

INDEPENDENCE.— There are some things not 
within reach of Independence, but there are 
also some things that cannot be taken away 
from it. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE CRIMES OF INTERMEDDLERS.— There 
are too many busybodies interfering with our 
affairs. It is possible to get rid of them if we 
set about it in earnest. 



SYNOPSiS. 15 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.— The indications 
are that the right of suffrage will eventually be 
limited to a select few and the public thereby 
relieved of its burden. 

CHAPTER XH. 

POLITICS. — Some of our singular ways of utilizing 
the right of suffrage. 

CHAPTER XIIL 

MONEY. — The "root of all evil" appears to be a 
necessity. That being the case, we ought to 
know something about it. We may read some- 
thing of it in this chapter, but there is much 
food for thought concerning it also. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

MONEY (Continued). — Too much honesty in money 
matters is injurious. There is no objection to 
a man being honest, but honesty need not de- 
stroy common sense. 



CHAPTER XV. 

A FINANCIAL PROBLEM.— There is no reason 
why a financial policy, successful at one time, 
should not be successful at another time under 
the same circumstances. 



i6 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

CHAPTER XVL 

LABOR. — An insight into the nature of labor and 
some facts connected with its character as a 
scapegoat. 



CHAPTER XVH, 



4 



LABOR (Continued). — The connection between 
Labor and Money; how that connection is sev- 
ered and the consequences thereof. 



CHAPTER XVHL 

LABOR (Continued). — TIerein many things it would 
be well for Labor to omit. Labor should look 
up, not down. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

LABOR (Concluded). — What will happen if Labor 
would act instead of talk. 



CHAPTER XX. 

CORPORATIONS, TRUSTS, SYNDICATES.— A 
dissection of this new Trinity which is apostoli- 
cizing the whole earth. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

STRIKES, BOYCOTTS, LOCKOUTS. — The 
merits of this Trinity as a competitive Apostle 
of the one mentioned in the last chapter. 



SYNOPSIS. 17 

CHAPTER XXII. 

ARRANT LAW. — Some persons imagine everything 
to be law that is called law. They will learn 
different in this chapter. Sometimes the law is 
itself more of a crime than its violation. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THROWING THE TEA OVERBOARD.— It is 
time to prepare for a new Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

CHARITY. — Some reasons going to show that 
American citizens are not objects of charity. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

EDUCATION. — Education is quite proper when in 
the right direction. Generally speaking, it is 
an unsuccessful attempt to measure different 
kinds of brains on the same pattern. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE RIGHT TO LIVE.— The resurrection of this 
fundamental but forgotten right. Also the re- 
moval of certain doubts as to its efficacy. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE GLORY pF THE KING.— "Divine Right" 
and "Public Good" seem to have bridged the 
gulf between them and to be now hobnobbing 
like old friends. 



i8 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

MODERN MARTYRS.— Showing that there are 
others besides the Roman Emperors who can 
manufacture martyrs. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

SABBATISM. — Liberty of conscience does not mean 
that some are at liberty to choke others into 
their way of thinking. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

VIRTUE AND VICE.— The rediscovery of the lost 
dividing line between them. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

WEALTH AND POVERTY.— This chapter is both 
true and untrue, depending upon the way it is 
looked at. 

CHAPTER XXXIL 

PESSIMISM— OPTIMISM.— Extremes meet, hence 
both may be "Calamity howlers." 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

INFALLIBILITY OF THE HINDSIGHT.— 
Showing why we know more this week than 
we thought we knew last week. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY.— A consolatory 
chapter for the hungry. 



SYNOPSIS. 19 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE UPSHOT.— Being what a man has a right to be 
and to do ; what he might do if he would, can do 
if he will, and ought to do because he can. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

SEIZING TPIE OPPORTUNITIES.— In the gen- 
eral grab game going on, we must not let 
everything get away from us. 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

THE ONLY WAY.— That there is "only one way" 
to destroy Poverty is proven by the fact that 
nobody has ever discovered any other way. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE ONLY WAY (Concluded).— The result of fol- 
lowing /'the only way," will be the annihilation 
of Poverty, and the destruction of many other 
unbearable things. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

RUBBISH CLEARED AWAY.— The failure of ex- 
perimicntal schemes should put us on our guard 
a2;ainst mere theories. 



"•fa 



CHAPTER XL. 

CHEAP MONEY— DEAR MONEY.— To prevent 
the people from suffering through "cheap 
money" they are not permitted to have any 
kind. 



20 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

CHAPTER XLI. 

PERPETUATING PREJUDICE.— David said in 1 
his haste, "All men are liars," but the reader 
will say the same thing after mature delibera- | 
tion. 

CHAPTER XLIL I 

THE BLISTER ON A WOODEN LEG.— The j 
reader is expected to draw his own "Moral" \ 
from this chapter. j 



THE 

DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY 



CHAPTER I. 

A PERIOD OF UNREST. 

There is something radically wrong with mankind. 

Hunger, Dyspepsia, Conscience, and perhaps 

Remorse, give us Insomnia. 

"And the kings of the earth' and the great 
men, and the rich men, and the great cap- 
tains, and the mighty men, and every bond 
man, and every free man, hid themselves in 
the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 

''And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall 
on us, and hide us from the face of him that 
sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of 
the Lamb." 

— Revelation vi., 15-16. 

That a condition of unrest exists in the whole world 
is attested by statesmen, politicians, clergymen and 
editors. The man v/ho reads as he runs, wonders at 
it, but the man who stops to think, deems it less a mat- 
ter of surprise that the world should be in a condition 
of restless fermentation than that the reason of it 

21 



22 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

should be left to conjecture. It is a disease brought 
on by known causes which could not be quarantined 
against, aggravated by the application of too many 
remedies in the hands of too many contrary schools 
of political, spiritual and intellectual physicians, most 
of them quacks. 

Had the present condition of things existed vv^hen 
men were supposed to be wallowing in the slough 
of debased ignorance and semi-civilization, the earth 
would have been upheaved by revolutions to reform 
that unpleasant condition, and either death or a cure 
sought by every remedy possible to mankind. As it 
is at present, the very unrest of the world is intensified 
by the confessed inability of man to relieve it. 

Men are taught that they have certain inalienable 
rights which they are privileged to enjoy unmolested 
by others, and certain individuals are periodically se- 
lected to see that those rights are respected. But the 
protection afforded proves to be no protection, for the 
reason that those who make it their business on earth 
to perpetually invade the rights and privileges of 
others, are so numerous and powerful, as well as per- 
suasive, that the persons selected to protect, have 
themselves fallen into the clutches of the wrongdoers, 
obeying their behests, because they know very well 
that by sturdily standing up for the rights of those 
whom they are bound to protect, they would lose their 
positions and means of livelihood. 
. So it is that mankind are pulling in contrary direc- 
tions, and there are as many contrary directions as 
there are nations, guilds, cliques, cabals, corporations, 
officials, trusts, contractors, political parties and can- 
didates for public jobs. The sum and substance of it 
all is, the g-overnment and the governed are not in ac- 
cord. 

It must not be understood that the government, or 
rather the governing class — for government of itself 
is an irresponsible myth — is dissatisfied, or is sufifering 



A PERIOB OF Ul^kEST. 23 

from the epidemic of unrest; on the contrary, it is the 
"governed" that exhibit all the virulence of dissatis- 
faction. All this comes from the fact, which is gradu- 
ally dawning upon their minds, that they are not "gov- 
erned," but "plucked" for the benefit of the others. 
This revelation produces a restless feeling, all the more 
distressing when it is considered that there is no 
re^nedy. 

If there be a remedy to relieve this confessed condi- 
tion of unrest, where is it, what is it? 

We have a multitude of quacks, charlatans, mounte- 
banks, theologians, politicians, statesmen, cranks, 
short-haired women and long-haired men, newspaper 
editors, and all manner of bunco steerers, constantly 
applying remedies ad nauseam — that is, they make one 
sick — but the more they dabble with humanity, the 
worse it becomes, and the wonder is, not that men are 
restless, but that mankind are not moribund, as they 
are penniless through liberal payments for the medica- 
ments furnished to kill instead of cure. 

It is a glorious and wonderful sight, this pyrotech- 
nic bombardment of the earth with the blessings of 
civilization and doses of "higher life!" The fond ex- 
pectations of the advocates of the mysterious higher 
life are being fully realized, and men are becoming so 
saturated with its beatitudes that they submit to every 
exaction without a murmur. 

The slave was contented once upon a time, but grew 
restless and his chains fretted his limbs when he 
learned that his condition was one of misery and that 
freedom was his God-given prerogative and inalien- 
able right. Now, the slavery of freedom has become 
apparent through the very education forced upon him 
to assert that freedom, and having reached the end, 
the limit of human ingenuity in destroying human 
bien etre there is nothing for it, but to either lead him 
up to the pious sweetness of bearing his yoke with pa- 
tience, or, in default of persuading him to accept it 



24 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

on the score of patriotism, to use force to crush him 
down again into his ancient wallow and keep him 
there, a condition all the more agonizing, as he has 
been educated to understand his helplessness. 

So goes the world from one extreme to another. | 

Back and forth swings the pendulum of humanity, j 

from barbarism to civilization and a so-called higher | 

life, then back again to barbarism. i 

Men are not accustomed to inflict pain upon them- ! 

selves voluntarily, nor revel in that which is unpleas- I 

ant, and they do not wallow in the gutter of unrest i 

of their own volition. It is not limited to the poor, to I 

those who lie down at night and wonder whether the ; 

birds will bring them needed food on the mgrrow, for \ 

those, whose needs and wants are supplied without j 

stint and unlimited are afflicted with the prevalent i 

universal dissatisfaction. A dread of the future hangs I 

over all, a shadowy something appalls us, and we turn j 

into every by-path of life to find relief, but do not find : 
it. Later on men will call upon the mountains and 

rocks to fall upon them and hide them. Is the vision ; 

of John in Revelation becoming a reality? ] 

There never was a time when" the- poor were not | 

anxious, but now those who are not poor feel a morbid j 

sensation in their bosoms, a feeling that all is not I 

right, that there is something wrong. Most truly i 

there is, and as the world moves on the something I 

which is wrong will increase in magnitude until it will j 

overwhelm all of us. ' 

Conscience is working in the hearts of men, and they \ 

do not recognize it. We know what our next door | 

neighbor is doing; we know what he lacks and we i 

know also that we can supply what he lacks without j 

endangering our own comfort, but we hesitate to in- | 

terfere, and finally decline altogether to aid him. The ! 

rankling thought, however, remains, we feel that we i 

have erred, sinned, or at least we comprehend within ; 

ourselves that we have done wrong, and we do other I 



A PERIOD OF UNREST. 25 

wrong acts to smother the first one. In spite of the 
social maxim: "Every one for himself and the Devil 
take the hindmost," our soul tells us that we have mis- 
construed our duty. But we go on in the same way, 
ever wishing but never doing. We weep, but amuse- 
ment dries our tears. Opportunities come and go, 
and our conscience continues to gnaw in our breasts 
and we feel restless. Go sell all thou hast and give to 
the poor. A harsh command, and we think to find 
comfort in the fact that the poor we have always with 
us, forgetting that their very poverty is our ovv^n do- 
ing. 

There are other and outside influences at work to 
destroy our peace of mind, and bring insomnia to our 
pillows. The dread of the future is injected into our 
veins, and causes a fever of horrid anticipation. We 
might be cured, but, alas! the multiplicity of remedies 
in the hands of quacks and charlatans. It is: "Here, 
Lord, there Lord," and he is nowhere. 

We cannot find the .truth. jNIen tell us what truth 
is, and when we accept it, others tell us that it is un- 
truth, so our minds wander aimlessly, and like drown- 
ing men we catch at opinion's straws, but continue 
to drown. 

The rain falls upon the just and upon the unjust; 
churches, synagogues, religious assemblies, and the 
innocent are struck by lightning and swept away by 
storms, while the man of dreadful oaths enacts the 
role of Ajax with impunity. When the Lord's w^ork 
does not agree with ours, it becomes the Devil's work. 
Children war with each other but unite to defraud 
their parents; parents scofr at and mock those they 
brought into the v/orld; husbands and wives jangle, 
and fret at the holy bonds which they once accepted 
with pleasure, and, unable to bear any more of each 
other, break loose in an explosion of scandal; our 
courts of justice teem with cases of wholesale and re- 
tail robberies, extortions and wrongs, perpetrated and 



26 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

permitted under the rule of preponderance of evidence. 
Millions devoted to charity are withheld from the vic- 
tim with pressing needs, until she swallows poison and 
hurries before the face of God to accuse the Pharisees 
that sent her there. The enforced statutory amalgama- 
tion of men and women, with its mountain of bitter 
fruits, seductions, debaucheries, infanticides and sui- 
cides, has turned into a river of sewage that is over- 
flowing its banks. The concentration of wealth in the 
hands of a few, the business of the world controlled by 
syndicates, the compression of money into a value 
beyond the reach of the impoverished, the centraliza- 
tion of power, authority, government, and the apo- 
theosis of the perpetual officeholder give rise to anx- 
ious thoughts. 

All these things and their outgrowths have brought 
upon the world a sensation of anxiety, of unrest. The 
man with a small wage chafes at his chain of bond- 
age because he sees nothing beyond, neither for him- 
self nor for his children; and in the souls and con- 
sciences of those who brought about this condition, 
there is a feeling that to attain it the damnation of the 
people was too high a price, it is beginning to react 
upon them, and so they are restless. 

We have put our hands to the plow and cannot look 
back, and whether for evil or good, for wrong or right, 
we travel the furrow helpless, not even a general elec- 
tion can help us. It is undertaking too large a con- 
tract to strike for the rights of all mankind, when the 
rights of American citizens ought to be the sole ob- 
jects of our solicitude. By wandering away into other 
fields while our own are lying fallow, we are adding 
so much unnecessary weight to our burdens that the 
strain of supporting it begins to chafe. 

It is evident that the kings of the earth are tremb- 
ling on their thrones, and that their heads lie uneasy 
beneath their crowns, but we do not read that their 
subjects are uneasy or trembUng on that account. 



A PERIOD OF UNREST. 2^ 

They are apathetic, indifferent, for their status is 
fixed, the divine right hangs over them hke a pall, and 
it is of no consequence whether one or another king 
rules over them, they are helpless and beyond the 
means of redressing their wrongs. They are beginning 
to realize that the pomp of royalty is maintained by the 
blood of the people, pressed out of them as is wine 
from the grapes in a wine press. Occasionally their 
blood ferments like the other expressed juice, and the 
fermentation produces anarchy. So the kings 
tremble, but they continue to press out the life blood 
of their subjects, and with it keep their royal robes 
up to the proper standard of color. The dagger of an 
assassin reaches the heart of a noble-hearted queen, 
who is made the victim of the wrongs inflicted by 
others. "The assassin originates in the filth of the gut- 
ters, is of a slimy, degraded parentage." Well, who 
dug those gutters and filled them with filth? Who 
maintains the disgraceful parentage that produces vile 
assassins? Is not the life of a vagrant as valuable to 
him as that of a king? Is not the life of the poor 
crushed out to maintain kings in splendor? Where- 
fore, then, should not the lives of kings be sacrificed to 
give the poor bread? We pity and regret, but why 
should we sympathize? We have naught in common 
with efifete systems, and if they would avoid trembling, 
let them consider the people as something more than 
victims fit only for oppression. 

What are the thoughts of the starving subjects of 
a royal despot, when they read that the venerable 
Pontiff of Rome has been able to accumulate during 
his short pontificate a private fortune of twenty mil- 
lions of dollars? Do the}^ rejoice at his good fortune, 
or do they grind their teeth in impotent rage at their 
own miseries? It is not envy nor is it jealousy that 
makes them rebel, it is want. If, therefore, the man of 
God lays up to himself treasures of earth, what do not 
do those who know no God but their own vanity? 



28 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

Anarchy, in the United States, is not even surmis- 
able. We are all anarchists, for we pull down and 
build up to our heart's content. We make the laws 
and change them as we will. Every election is an up- 
heaval, a revolution, ofttimes a bloody riot. We 
change, reform, alter, subvert, remodel the govern- 
ment according to our fancies. We never get it just 
right, so we keep on eternally taking it apart, patch- 
ing and repairing it. We abuse, villify, calumniate, de- 
stroy our rulers with impunity, for we put them over 
us and we can pull them down again if dissatisfied 
with them. They toady to us, tickle our vanity, 
pander to our wishes, buy us with beer and promises, 
all to continue in the job of ruling us. Wliat more can 
anarchy do or have? We need no daggers or bombs, 
the ballot is our weapon, hence, we smile at the red 
fiag and wonder why the kings tremble when it waves 
in the breeze. Our unrest is not on account of our 
system, for vv^e are the people. Our fear is the other 
way — we are afraid of the kings and we do the tremb- 
ling, lest they destroy our system and our privileges. 
With us it is the king who is an anarchist, for he is 
subverting our system and forging upon our lim.bs the 
chains of financial slavery. Our kings are known by 
their bank accounts, and not by their pomp, fuss and 
feathers. Their dirone is incorporated according to 
law, and we car.Uot pull it down; if we did, it would 
fall upon and crush us also. We need our kings and 
they need us, and when that truth is brought clearly 
to our understanding there will be no unrest here. 



CHAPTER n. 

AN ERA OF CONFIDENCE. 

This is the other side of the question, but on close 
examination it does not come up to the ex- 
pectations. Confidence is not yet 
sufficient security for a 
loan of money. 

"Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith 
hath made thee whole." 

— St. Matthew ix., 22. 

It matters not who makes the statement, nor when 
or where it is made^ it is a fact that: The era of con- 
fidence has not yet arrived. Indeed it is so far ofi that 
it has becorrie part of .the mythical millennium. But 
confidence is a good shibboleth, and serves to fill many 
a coffer that would be empty if the word were taken 
at its true meaning. The fact is, those who make the 
greatest outcry about confidence are the ones who pre- 
vent its return. 

Suppose confidence should actually exist? Then 
the world would be honest, for, when all is said, the 
question of confidence is one of honesty or dishonesty, 
whether that confidence relate to religion, law, poli- 
tics or finance. There never was a period in the his- 
tory of the earth when all men vv^ere honest; there 
was always more or less roguery, cheating, deception, 
double deahng and the like. In those not-quite-so- 
bad-as-our days, it m.ay be said that there were some 
dishonest men; now^ we are proud to say: "There are 

2Q 



30 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

some honest men." Mark the shade of difference. 
The situation resembles a chemical substitution, or 
metalepsis. Here is the formula: 

Honesty Dishonesty. 

Dishonesty Honesty. 

The radical "honesty" of the first term follows its af- 
finity ''honesty" in the second place of the second 
term, which is the condition of the formula in these 
fin-de-siecle days, which leaves "dishonesty" as the 
radical. Thus, when acetate of lead and sulphate of 
zinc are compounded, the mixture becomes acetate of 
zinc by metalepsis, the sulphur and lead falling to the 
bottom of the jar in an insoluble compound, useless 
for any practical purpose. Thus it is that dishonesty 
has drawn to itself all the other assimilable elements, 
and becomes the dominant radical, whereas honesty 
is the useless powder at the bottom. 

Let us see whether or not this is true ; 

There was certainly a time when the line between 
honesty and dishonesty was sharply defined, and an 
easily recognized barrier up to which men could march 
boldly and make mouths at the other side without dan- 
ger of falling over. But, to-day, not only the line, but 
its location is lost and there is no modern surveyor 
who can re-locate it even if he were permitted to do so. 
True, attempts are made, but the road traveled is ex- 
tremely zigzag, and, owing to a diversity of opinions, 
it is impossible to lay a straight line. There are so 
many questions of personal interest involved, such a 
variety of unpleasant results liable to ensue, that men 
have become indisposed to accept them when adverse 
to their interests. 

One test, however, which seems to be accepted by 
common consent is in the adjudication of a court, or 
the verdict of a jury; yet, even then, those fori are 
rejected as untrustv/orthy, when grave questions are 



AN ERA OF CONFIDENCE. 31 

involved, and arbitration resorted to in the place there- 
of. Wherefore, if a man be acquitted by the verdict 
of a jury, the decision of a court, or that of arbitrators, 
he is honest, but if otherwise, he is manifestly dishon- 
est. So great, however, is the general lack of confi- 
dence that it requires the ultimate finding of a court 
of last resort to determine a man's moral condition. 
We are doing everything by law, and the forum con- 
scientiae is abolished, even in courts of equity which 
are bound down by the rigid rules of law. This is the 
condition we have been brought to, a condition in 
which moral doctrine weighs not a feather in our 
affairs, but the operation of human law is made the 
sole test. We have rendered to Caesar, but we have 
forgotten God. We are not dishonest, because a 
court, jury or board of arbitrators so determine, but 
in case of a new trial or reversal on appeal the honest 
man again becomes dishonest and vice versa. All of 
which is pure metalepsis. 

This is no laughing matter, on the contrary it is of 
grave importance to ascertain the cause of the present 
universal lack of confidence. With the cause hidden, 
there can be ho remedy applied, no blister put upon it 
to restore it to its normal condition. All are fishing 
for it, so let us follow suit and drop our lines in the 
same puddle, perhaps we can hook our fish by bob- 
bing for it, or at least "snag" it. 

It requires more than the acquisition of wealth by 
a few citizens to establish an era of confidence and be- 
lief in prosperity. The man who has not acquired any- 
thing possesses a different opinion about the matter, 
and the man who loses becomes a confirmed pessimist 
and a calamity howler. That the balance of trade 
with Europe is two or three hundred millions of dol- 
lars in our favor, or that our wheat crop is the most 
enormous the country ever saw, is not the standard 
that justifies the man out of work in throwing up his 
hat and hurrahing for prosperity, as some of our finan- 



32 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

cial wiseacres expect him to do, there is not and 
cannot be any general welfare where there is private 
destitution. To be fair, it should be said that the dis- 
satisfaction of a few citizens and their inability to make 
both ends meet, or their failure to borrow money to 
tide them over in some scheme, does not indi- 
cate a lack of confidence, any more than the success 
of a few individuals creates confidence. A few failures 
do not indicate universal ruin, nor does one swallow 
make a summer. 

The banks are overflowing with gold. Well, what 
is that to me? I am out of work and cannot therefore 
get any gold. So far as I am concerned, it may as 
well not be there. If there were very little money in 
the banks I should feel more encouraged, for my com- 
mon sense would tell me that it is in circulation, in- 
vested, and that I stand a chance of earning -some. 

It is often heralded in the newspapers: "Millions of 
coin coming here to pay for our enormous wheat 
crop. Farmers are rejoicing." Shortly afterwards 
the same papers shout: "Banks overflowing with 
money." Where does the farmers' jubilation come in? 
What connection is there between him and the mil- 
lions and the overflowing banks? He can get the 
money out just like anyone else, if he has any there, 
but he has not. Farmers sell their Wheat for cash, 
they do not and can not wait for any returns from 
Europe, any more than labor waits for its wages until 
the employer has sold the product of his labor, or a 
baker waits for his money for bread until it has bene- 
fited the consumer. AH of this money belongs to the 
speculators. It does not add a baubee's worth to pros- 
perity, nor relieve the farmer from next interest day 
or next year's taxes. He does not get ahead any more 
than does the laborer. If this money were his, as 
newspaper editors imagine, he would be ahead, but the 
facts are that he is always behind. A stranger, unac- 
customed to our absurd fabrications, would imagine 



AN ERA OF CONFIDENCE. 33 

from the hulabaloo over these periodical showers of 
gold, that our laborers and farmers are receiving 
princely incomes, whereas in truth and in fact they are 
all living from hand to miouth. 

All this hubbub about confidence and prosperity is 
a dream, a mere fancy, a fabrication manufactured out 
of whole cloth, like the fictitious rating of a merchant 
anxious to obtain a loan by false pretenses. When 
labor is regarded as money, and when we read that 
every man able to work can find work and is working 
at living wages, then will be the time to hurrah for 
prosperity. The writer, in several successive years, has 
stood in the midst of six hundred miles of cornfields 
that were left standing as not worth the gathering. 
This, too, when corn was high on the Atlantic sea- 
board and in Europe, and when the newspapers were 
shouting "prosperity, lucky farmers," and other bald- 
erdash. The farmers could not get enough for their 
corn to pay for the plucking, so it went to waste. 
Again, he has seen thousands upon thousands of acres 
of good wheat, under like circumstances, cut for hay, 
enabling the lucky farmer to get back the price of the 
seed out of a 'crop he could not have sold for that, al- 
though the whole world was howling ''prosperity," 
and "millions of money" were coming over, and the 
banks were stuffed full of it. Prosperity and confi- 
dence cannot be manufactured out of wind, and there 
is too much poverty, too much starvation, to create 
confidence in newspaper or political prosperity. The 
mere possession of money is not prosperity, nor does it 
create it; a miser is not prosperous, but a laborer who 
has work and no money may be both prosperous and 
have confidence, for he knows that pay day will come. 
The beauty of virtue makes it lovable for its own sake, 
and it may be said that confidence begets confidence, 
but it does not produce work or wages, nor furnish 
bread and meat. Like all other beautiful sentiments 
in poetry, it is Impractical. It is giving a man a 



34 IHE DiiSTRUCTlON OF POVERTY. j 

prayer-book instead of a loaf of bread, a tract instead j 
of a bowl of soup. j 

The fact is, we are doing everything we can to de- i 
stroy confidence. The man whose word is as | 
good as his bond still lives, but his bond is required I 
instead of his word. The men who have so little con- | 
fidence in themselves that they are afraid they will I 
steal if they have an opportunity, think the same of | 
everybody else, hence they exact a bond and reject ' 
the word. The sentiment of honesty as an element j 
in our social relations has disappeared and men are \ 
not selected because of their honesty, but by the size of | 
their bond. So it happens that honesty has ceased 
to be a moral virtue and is governed like all commer- 
cial transactions, it is a matter of business. An hon- j 
est man must give a bond, but he soon learns that \ 
neither his honesty nor integrity are involved, and he I 
loses his fine sense of honor, his honesty becomes | 
blunted. His honor, like the virtue of women, is put i 
upon a commercial basis, and he sells it without the : 
slightest compunctions of conscience. He knows that ' 
the law will punish him if he is detected, but the moral j 
idea is lost. The conditions are not conducive to the i 
slightest amount of confidence. Men become wealthy j 
in various shady ways and are looked up to with the \ 
greatest respect. The moral robbers of mankind are ; 
as numerous as the honest men, and it has come to be j 
a maxim: "A man is honest because he has no chance ! 
to steal." Every man is compelled to live under a ■ 
cloud all his life, and the confidence withheld from him ; 
he withholds from others. The workers in the field of j 
morality have made us immoral. I 



CHAPTER III. 

"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" 

The chances are that if we do not begin doing some- 
thing ver}^ soon we shall not have an 
opportunity to do anything. 

In the course of a lecture delivered from a New 
York rostrum not long ago, the speaker, a clergyman, 
declared that it was well worth a million of dollars to 
save a human soul. Whether the reverend gentleman 
was correct in his calculation, or a few hundred thou- 
sand dollars beyond the exact truth, is immaterial, the 
fact remaining that the financial problem Vv^as sub- 
mitted as an issue in the various spiritual schemes 
broached for the laudable purpose of salvation. 
Neither is it essential to inquire whether the expendi- 
ture of any given sum of money can ever carry the 
conviction of absolute certainty to any man that the 
soul of a fellow man is surely beyond the apprehen- 
sion of damnation, for, according to the philosophy of 
religion, salvation is free, and reliance is placed upon 
the justice and mercy of God, that a certain soul has 
reached, or will reach, that blessed condition. That 
reliance is a justifiable hope, based upon certain favor- 
able circumstances, and is not derived from the finan- 
cial view of the relative cost of a certain quantity of 
redemption. 

The suggestion of a connecting link between finance 
and man's spiritual requirements, calls for deeper re- 
flection than will appear justifiable to the casual reader, 
who absorbs unguarded and undigested statements as 

35 



36 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

he would the aphorisms of the ancients; that is, he does 
not carry them out to their logical conclusion, and soon 
forgets them until they are most forcibly recalled to 
his attention, by an attempt to enforce them in pur- 
suance of some subtle plan looking to purely financial 
results. 

There never was a period in the history of the 
United States when so many grave and serious ques- 
tions have been presented for solution as during the 
past few years, and never has there been so little suc- 
cess in solving any of them. The minds of men do 
not seem able to grasp any reality or unite upon any 
point of agreement, and the practicability of every sug- 
gestion advanced by a crowd of thinkers, is speedily 
destroyed in the futile experiments made to maintain 
it. In the respective domains of government, politics 
and law, even in those of art, science, drama and litera- 
ture, opinions are as wide, variant and diverse as is the 
number of persons enunciating those opinions. There 
is no cohesion to the segregated, antagonistic atoms 
of ideas and there does not appear to be any element 
or superior power that can establish a common foun- 
dation upon which all, or even a majority of men may 
base their random thoughts, which, without a fixed, 
certain standard or criterion on which to measure 
them, are as ephemeral as the ocean mists, as shifting 
as the sands upon the seashore, idle, useless vapor. 

Time was, when religion was the cement that bound 
men together in one common design and interest, but 
to charge religion now with impotency to solidify hu- 
man thought, and plant it upon a solid foundation, is 
to incur the charge of atheism. It may be that social and 
business -relations lead some men to enunciate extreme 
radical ideas, and even attempt to pluck the Eternal 
from His Throne, because of many human irregular- 
ities committed under the mantle of bigotry and Phari- 
seeism, yet the relations between religion and human- 
ity are all the more important to be calmly and prop- 



"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" ■>,-7 

erly discussed with a view of obtaining a correct un- 
derstanding of them, as the welfare of the human soul 
is of more importance than the temporal requirements 
of the body. The one is but a few strokes upon the 
clock of time, the other means eternity. 

When our forefathers eliminated the Church from 
the State, it never occurred to them — we have their 
writings to that effect — that religion, as an intimate 
essential element in the existence of the citizen, could 
be in any manner enfeebled and its effects antagonized 
or deteriorated. Their profound acquaintance with the 
history of mankind led them to set their faces sternly 
against a combination of theocracy with civil democ- 
racy and, in their wisdom, foreseeing the evil conse- 
quences of such a union, they left the conscience of the 
man amenable to his Creator for acts committed 
against His Majesty, and provided that the State alone 
should regulate the conduct of men towards each 
other as citizens. The very foundation, the essence of 
our form of governmicnt, is in contract relations and 
regulations looking to the life, liberty, peace, happi- 
ness, comfort, welfare, etc., of the citizens among 
themselves, without interference with their responsi- 
bility to God for offences against Him, and without 
permitting the idea of that responsibility to interfere 
with the contract rights of any of them as citizens. 
"Sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas," was the maxim 
under which this country flourished, and became a 
nation to which flocked the downtrodden and op- 
pressed of other nations, even those whom theocracy 
threatened to crush, and they were protected. The 
civil law became supreme for governmental purposes, 
and theological dogmas were rigidly limited to the 
individual conscience. The State, as such, was neither 
the exponent nor factor of either morals or virtue; it 
protected, as it was intended solely to protect, indi- 
vidual citizens in the practice of morality and in the 
exercise of virtue under the free, fostering care of 



.^8 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

religion as taught by the churches. There was not, 
and there could not be, any intermixture or clashing 
of the two powers, because they were kept separate 
and distinct. It was presumed, moreover, that re- 
ligion possessed sufficient strength and virtue of its 
own to stand in aid of the State and stand beside the 
State for the purpose of administering to the spiritual 
wants of man, while the State extended over him the 
aegis of the civil law as one of its citizens. Here was a 
cohesion of the segregated individuals in one common 
mass acting in harmony with the State. 

It seems, however, at this late day, and when we 
have become confused with a mass of opinions and 
criticisms, formed by those who have become sat- 
urated with the principles of governments foreign to 
and destructive of our own, that the wisdom of our 
forefathers was at fault, for we are confronted with the 
same grave questions they met and solved, which we 
have been drawn away from by the glamour of foreign 
ideas and which history has often repeated. The cold 
facts are in evidence that systems of religion have 
failed to perform their share of the duties devolving 
upon them, and that religion in the hands of the sects 
is forced to call upon the State to enforce its various 
theological dogmas. 

In the Pagan system, virtue and morality were under 
the special fostering care of the State, which appro- 
priated, as an adjunct necessary to its existence, what- 
ever religion could be extracted from the worship of 
the gods. Sins, as understood in the Christian dispen- 
sation, did not exist, but all violations of the estab- 
lished rules of virtue and good morals were violations 
of the municipal law, and therefore dangerous to the 
government; hence the suppression of such offences 
as are termed mala prohibita. The whole Pagan sys- 
tem was the absorption of religious and civil 
government each by the other, and an oflFence against 
either was a violation of municipal law. The enforced 



"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" 39 

worship of the gods was merely a means to an end, and 
a preventive poUcy on the part of the civil power, to 
which became attached the name "religion," to dis- 
tinguish the supernatural from the material, and by 
the suggestion of supernatural punishments the re- 
'igious idea assumed the aspect of a deterrent. 

It was Christ who first drew the strong line of de- 
marcation between violations of the municipal law, and 
sins committed against the majesty of God, and to 
every outbreak against the dominion of the Supreme 
Being was attached a special punishment, independent 
of, and wholly unconnected with the penalties inflicted 
for violations of the civil law. To this new category 
were added the purely intellectual, spiritual sins, 
which were always beyond the reach of the laws ol 
man. 

The inculcation of this Christian philosophy, stand- 
ing as it did upon the principle of accountability to 
God alone, for acts committed against His dominion, 
deluged the earth with the blood of the martyrs, who 
received their crowns as a compensatory reward for 
refusing to participate in the sacrifices offered to the 
gods of Pagandom, notwithstanding that Paganism 
demanded such acts of worship as merely emblematic 
of municipal law, and a recognition of the sovereignty 
of the State. With the extermination of all rivalry be- 
tween Paganism and Christian worship, the latter, by 
virtue of its contended superiority as a divine factor, 
asserted its supremacy over municipal laws and regu- 
lations, and obliterated the line of distinction marked 
out by Christ. Plence it came to pass that the blood 
of the former martyrs was vainly poured out and their 
sacrifices, if not rendered entirely useless, were at 
least considered as martyrdom for a mei^e idea, by the 
subordination of the municipal to the theological regu- 
lation and its absolute absorption, so that he who was 
formerly considered a traitor to the Pagan State for 
refusing to obey its mandates to offer incense to the 



40 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

gods, became a traitor to the Christian State and put to 
death for a parallel reason. Moreover, as under Pagan 
Rome, the earth was sodden with the blood of Chris- 
tians persecuted for religion's sake, so under the new 
amalgamation the earth became again crim.soned with 
the life fluid of disobedient humanity, termed "here- 
tics," however, instead of martyrs. 

At last humanity rebelled and there arose those who 
insisted upon a return to the philosophy of Christ, 
that violations of the municipal law and sins against 
God were not interconvertible acts, but followed sep- 
arate and distinct lines, the one purely civil for the 
good of the State — a tangible, material prison, the 
other purely spiritual — a supernatural hell. As it was 
once before, when those upspringing from the seed of 
the martyrs, in their pride of success, returned to the 
Pagan system of a union of Church and State, so the 
heretics, when they attained success, abandoned their 
Christian philosophy and reverted to Paganism until 
to-day we are the witnesses of a culmination of all of 
the blighting influences of Paganised Christianity, 
with the municipal law and supernaturalism welded to- 
gether in an indistinguishable mass. 

What else is it than Paganism? With the mere 
mala prohibita of regulation, intended always for the 
benefit of the citizens in their close personal, contract 
relations, magnified into crimes of as great magnitude 
and moment as the mala in se of the law of God, recog- 
nized and incorporated in the municipal law, and our 
statute books, in consequence, incumbered with pro- 
hibitions, restrictions, interferences and sumptuary 
laws, utter strangers to the idea of civil government, 
and more absurd and useless in the modern Caesar 
than would be the trivial rules and regulations laid 
down for the children of Israel still struggling in the 
Wilderness; the personal rights of citizens are fast dis- 
appearing and in place of a Qontract government we 
are oppressed by an arbitrary system based upon 



"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" 41 

church regulations. The Church has again appeared 
as a usurper on the domain of Caesar, and in the face 
of innumerable disasters to the human race; in despite 
of the sufferings and miseries entailed upon men by 
similar encroachments, the sects have united upon 
the only point their theological differences will permit 
them to unite, and boldly dropping the mask, stand 
forth under the shallow pretence of reform, and pur- 
pose making the State the passive ae^ent of the Church 
in the punishment of theological offences, as well as 
demanding the incorporation of theological dogmas 
into the laws of the land. 

What has been the result of such a system in the 
third largest city of the world and the professed equal 
of any in refinement and enlightenment? What has 
man accomplished as the self-appointed agent of the 
Almighty in the execution of His vengeance upon in- 
dividuals for the commission of sins against His com- 
mandments? Has any good purpose beneficial to the 
citizen been accomplished by the wdiims of the bitter 
partisans of one hundred and fifty different sects, who 
cannot agree upon any definite plan of salvation, and 
who are now beginning to reject the authenticity of the 
Bible, the groundwork of whatever religious faith they 
possess, and up^on which they alone have the right to 
claim any existence or morality whatever? 

Utterly ignoring the sound principles lying at the 
foundation of a civil government, as perfect as any 
ever created, the conscience of the citizen is no longer 
unmolested; his personal, private sins, which theology 
seems impotent to eradicate, are dragged into the body 
of the municipal law, and, vengeance wrested, from the 
hands of the Creator, they are exposed to the light of 
day in our civil fori, to the incalculable damage, 
through consequent scandals, to the correct morals 
of the people. We have heard it in ringing words 
from the pulpits that we are sunk as deep in corrup- 
tion as were Sodom and Gomorrah, and that our 



42 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

j 
morals are of the same disreputable character as those ! 
manifested by ancient Babylon. A strong arraign- I 
ment, indeed, of the combination of civil government ; 
and theology, of the practical union of Church and ! 
State, and the strongest possible evidence of its mod- ; 
ern as well as ancient failure, and the positive injury i 
it has inflicted not only to morals, but to material ! 
prosperity. Why destroy us materially if we are made I 
worse spiritually? \ 

What will be the outcome of a continuation of this i 
experim.ent? When Paganism had spent its force, and \ 
fallen so low that even the slaves lost their respect for ; 
it, theocracy came to the rescue, but itself, in the ' 
course of time, became as oppressive a despot through i 
the unyielding nature of theological dogmas, and was | 
overturned by some other form of government, which I 
in its turn recjuired reformation, and so on alternately ] 
down to the present time, when a cycle of change in | 
human affairs is evidently approaching, if we may 'j 
judge from the history of the past. In the light of the j 
fact that the very root and essence of our system of I 
government is in the strong soil of contractual rela- ] 
tions, and that upon the corner-stone of our national i 
structure is written in ineffaceable characters, "So use j 
thine own as not to injure thy neighbor," will it again :i 
be necessary for theocracy to step into the arena as the j 
savior of the civil power? Must the Church be again | 
united to the State, and if so, which of the sects shall I 
be selected to make the connection? ■ 

When that time shall have come the old, thread- : 
bare, pious sentiment, "Servant3, obey your masters," I 
will drip from unctuous lips. Then will the poor : 
fawn upon the well-fed guardians of the nation's wel- ; 
fare and the public good, and receive for their sole , 
consolation and stimulant the assurance of a future ' 
paradise as the reward for their patient sufferings and ■ 
cheerful endurance of their miseries. To rebel will 
be heresy, to even groan a diminution of sanctifying | 

J 



"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" 43 \ 

grace. "Poor souls, I pity you from my heart," will j 
say the sleek holder of the keys to the granary. ''There 

will be a praise service this day week at which soup \ 

will be served to the deserving poor. In the mean- | 

time, here is a penny to sustain you." i 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE COMING CAESAR. 

We are drifting in the direction of a curious condition 

of things, and the more we struggle to 

avoid it, the nearer we approach it. 

What will be the government of the coming Caesar? 
Will it be a personal government, or one based upon 
a conventional system? 

The trend of modern thought is away from per- 
sonal absolutism, and towards a unification, upon a 
common moral basis, of all of the governments of the 
earth in what may be termed a "universal system." 

International treaties, conventions and courtesies, 
which have become incorporated, or codified into a 
quasi international law, have prepared the way for the 
idea of a new, systematic, international government, 
by an abnegation of numerous national rights, and 
there is no reason to doubt that in the near future 
there will be other steps taken along the same line, 
until it shall become necessary to assemble a conven- 
tion of the nations of the earth, or select a tribunal, or 
board of arbitration, to discuss the grave cjuestion of 
the limit of international comity and the preserva- 
tion of national autonomy. 

The rights of nations, inter se, in modern times, 
have gradually approximated the rights of the individ- 
uals, or citizens of any single nation in their relations 
with one another, and the time is fast approaching 
when the maxim, "Sic utere tuo, ut alienum non 
laedas," must be applied to nations in its widest appli- 

44 



THE COMING CAESAR. 45 

cation, as it is now by oiu- courts in determining con- 
troversies between individuals. 

It is true that this equitable principle has been 
more or less observed in questions arising under that 
indefinite code knows as "international law," but there 
has always been behind it the element of superior 
power to enforce it — a power maintained by armies and 
navies and not by moral precept, and, therefore, one- 
sided in its application for the purposes of commercial 
or territorial advantages. The weaker is compelled to 
succumb to the superior strength, and the voice of pro- 
test against usurpations meets with no response. 

By treaty concessions the citizen or subject of 
every treaty nation, wherever he may be, is theoretic- 
ally entitled to the same privileges he enjoys in his 
own native land, and every interference with those 
privileges is a violation of treaty rights, and if per- 
sonal damage ensue, a money compensation is 
awarded him through diplomatic management. 

It is by virtue of these same mutual treaties that the 
religious missionaries of the various treaty nations are 
accorded protection, and hence we find that while 
our missionaries are carrying the gospel of Christian- 
ity to the heathen nations, the missionaries from 
heathen lands are at liberty to erect temples to the 
v/orship of heathen deities in our midst, and may, un- 
molested, carry on a propaganda of proselytism if they 
so desire. In other words, we are witnesses of the 
curious spectacle, at this end of the century, of Chris- 
tianity being carried to heathenism, and heathenism 
being brought to Christian nations. 

This culmination of apostolicism has been reached 
through the elimination of the Church from the State 
in nearly every government of the earth, except Great 
Britain and Russia, in which nations, however, the 
Queen and the Czar are mere metaphorical heads of 
the respective established churches, and are temporal. 



46 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

not spiritual, sovereigns — the reverse of the Pope of 
Rome, who is a spiritual sovereign divested of his 
temporal power. 

This separation of Church and State has brought 
about a singular transformation in what have hereto- 
fore been regarded as essential theological dogmas, and 
although the congress of religions at the Columbian 
Exposition resulted in no definite agreement, yet 
enough was unfolded to disclose a universal desire to 
unify the religions of the world in one common, uni- 
versal religion, rejecting or rather modifying harsh 
doctrinal points and smoothing sharp theological cor- 
ners and angles until some feasible, acceptable founda- 
tion can be reached upon which to erect the new struc- 
ture. 

Out of this idea of a grand religious unification, 
which is progressing pari passu with the international 
unification already alluded to, has arisen the purpose 
of selecting those ethical precepts of all religions, which 
are substantially the same, and codifying them into a 
single theological system which shall be free from 
supernaturalism, and rest upon the same principle of 
justice and equity involved in the application of the 
legal maxim alre'ady cited. 

It is here that the religious idea enters upon the 
domain of the coming Caesar and joins hands with 
him in the inculcation of the great doctrine of "broth- 
erhood of man," so carefully fostered and so strenu- 
ously pressed upon the attention of the world by our 
most learned and upright ethical religious philos- 
ophers. 

The experience of centuries amply demonstrates 
that sectarianism precludes international autonomy; 
indeed, it is historical that nations have been disrupted 
and disintegrated by its too rigid observance, but by 
the adoption of a common ethical religion as the 
matrix, all the nations of the earth could be moulded 



THE COMING CAESAR. 47 

into a homogeneous union, devoted to strictly govern- 
mental purposes and mutual protection. 

Upon the statute books of all of the civilized nations 
of the earth already appear the precepts of morality, 
recognized and ratified by their adoption into the 
municipal code, and even nations not wholly barbarous 
regard the same precepts as substantially a part of their 
unwritten laws. Even a casual survey of this subject 
will satisfy the most captious, that it will not require a 
long step to reach a universal acceptance of a con- 
ventional code that shall be regarded with equal favor 
in darkest Africa, as in the light of American and 
European civilization. The nations of the earth can- 
not forever stand facing each other with their armies 
and navies waiting to fly at each other, and the time 
miust come when all this vast and expensive array of 
brute force will disappear beneath the touch of a com- 
mon interest based upon a universal, common, moral 
code. When that time comes Caesar will occupy a 
peculiar position, and becom.e the index of a system 
such as has been long hoped for by humanitarians and 
divines. 

The future Caesar will not be disturbed by the 
storms engendered by religious differences, nor will 
his system of government be based upon a combina- 
tion of Church and State, for that would be unneces- 
sary and useless, inasmuch as all of the moral code 
will be merged in the civil law and become matter of 
municipal regulation. Religion, as we now consider 
and define sectarianism, will disappear, not only de- 
signedly, but ex necessitate, and the reason for its dis- 
appearance is clear. 

There are essential principles in religion so radi- 
cally different from the government and laws of Caesar, 
that they are impossible of amalgamation or fusion. 
Religion is and must be dominant in the spiritual, su- 
pernatural world, as Caesar is and must be dominant 
in the material world. Christ knew it and commanded 



48 THE DESTRUCTION OF* POVERTY. 

their separation, and the wisest of the Pagan philos- 
ophers predicted the downfall of Pagandom by reason 
of the enforced mixture of the unseen with the. visible, 
the combination of the supernatural with the natural. 
In recent modern times we have been witnesses of the 
failure of the attempts to incorporate in the civil law 
the laws of God, and the disturbances that have been 
created, and the injustices that have been committed 
by vain attempts to enforce their observance, until now, 
it is as clear as noonday that men do not obey the law 
because it is the moral law, but because it is the law of 
Caesar, and they refuse to obey the moral law, eo 
nomine, when incorporated in the law of Caesar. The 
governed have a keener perception of their rights, and 
of the proper sphere of government than the govern- 
ing class, because the latter are always actuated by in- 
terest and assume that interest to be the best policy, 
whereas the latter demand protection in their aggre- 
gated and segregated capacity. Hoi polloi recognize 
in religion a principle of saving faith which does not 
exist in municipal regulations, and they know instinct- 
ively, even without the mythical liberty of conscience 
guaranteed them in our organic law, that their ultimate 
salvation does not depend upon Caesar, and the man- 
ner of it cannot be enforced by Caesar without his own 
destruction and their own. They also know better 
than philosophers and theologians that all government 
is based upon contract relations, and they concede that 
no man can be immoral without trenching upon the 
contract rights of another. This comprehension of 
government, entertained by all men from the begin- 
ning of the ages, has graduallv dawned upon the minds 
of the governing class, and has made it possible to 
advance with great strides towards a universal moral 
law not connected with supernaturalism, but absolutely 
severed from it. It is becoming more and more diffi- 
cult to urge theological dogma upon unwilling minds 
through the medium of the civil law, but the super- 



THE COMING CAESAR. 49 

natural part of religion will forever attract its votaries, 
and when all of its morality shall have been incor- 
porated in the laws of Caesar and enforced by reason 
of its justice and equity, there will remain to religion 
its powerful spiritual attraction which will bring men 
to God through its own mysterious influence, whereas 
now it is incumbered and hampered as well as ob- 
scured, by the vain attempt to enforce its operation 
through the power of Caesar's arm. 

The syncretic tendency of the world is undoubtedly 
towards Christianity as a religion, and as the only one, 
correctly speaking, all of the others being mere schools 
of philosophy with a tincture of mysticism absorbed 
from Christianity, often combined Vv^ith charlatanry. 
Buddhism, perhaps, is the only one of the great Orien- 
tal systems that contains the true religious idea, most 
of the ethics of which, however, except metempsycho- 
sis, that relic of Paganism, are found to perfection in 
the Christian system. In this view of the matter, 
nothing would result from a unification or combina- 
tion of the various moral systems of the world, but an 
eclecticism that could never be dignified with the name 
of religion. The application of the name to whatever 
may benefit mankind in the miatter of morals is mis- 
leading, for there is but one religion with a saving 
faith, to wit, Christianity, all the others, as has been 
said, being mere schools of philosophy. 

In the contemplated manufacture of a new "re- 
ligion" out of the worthier elements of those now ex- 
isting, the fi.rst question presented for solution would 
be an impasse to the erection of any supernatural 
structure, for while the Cliristian is willing-to admit the 
existence of a moral code in other systems, he would 
never yield his faith in Christianity as a saving faith, 
to Buddhism or Confucianism. He is well aware that 
although these two great Oriental systems contain 
certain moral principles that lie at the root of Chris- 
tianity there is lacking that one great supernatural 



50 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

badge of Christianity alone, the Redemption. With- 
out the surrender of all that elevates Christianity into 
a system of religion — the Unity and Trinity of God 
and the Incarnation, Death and Resurrection of the 
Saviour — there cannot be a syncretical religion, where- 
as through retaining it, as the matter and the essence 
of the Christian faith, there may be a moral eclecticism, 
and that is all there will ever be in any unification of 
either religious or moral ideas, but that would be 
Caesar and not religion. 

The idea of syncretism was broached for the first 
time in the seventeenth century, and met with strenu- 
ous opposition, for the reason here suggested. The 
very idea of finding the truth by a combination of be- 
liefs was a confession of error in the elements that were 
expected to syncretize, and therefore, it was argued, a 
collection or union of errors would still be error. The 
result of the movement, however, was a relaxing of 
the rigid rules of orthodoxy. 

It is possible and probable that the present well de- 
veloped and concerted movement towards unification 
of the religions of the world, may terminate in more 
modified vievv^s regarding the supernatural in religion 
and in the methods of acquiring saving grace. The 
door of salvation may be opened wider and the aspir- 
ing sinner may find less obstacles thrown in his way. 
It may also result in an advanced moral eclecticism or 
a more perfect adaptation of the ethics of true phil- 
osophy which will make men's minds more pliable to 
the truth; turn them into a more plastic clay for the 
spiritual potter, inasmuch as they will be tempered by 
the habit of voluntary observance of the moral law 
promulgated by Caesar. 

The question of morals is an essential requirement 
of religion, its basic dogma, its vital force. Without 
it there can be no religion, but it may exist independ- 
ent of religion. Indeed there have been men of the 
most rigid morality, even when gauged by the Chris- 



THE COMING CAESAR. • 51 

tian moral Idea, but who did not possess the sHghtest 
gUmmer of supernatural faith. What became of them 
or what their status is in the other life is a question to 
be determined by the supernatural part of religion. 
Humanly speaking, they were good citizens and care- 
ful observers of the civil law, and that is as far as 
Caesar may go. The illustration serves to embellish 
the idea that when morals, which is the vitality of the 
supernatural element of religion, are carried into the 
municipal law as a matter of regulation merely and 
not as a matter of religion, it is permitting Caesar to 
exercise a prerogative which religion has heretofore 
claimed as its own exclusive province. 

Out of the mistaken idea that religion should domi- 
nate the State in the matter of morals, have arisen the 
most bitter contests, that have neither benefited re- 
ligion nor the State, but have increased infidelity and 
indifference to supernatural dogmas and lessened the 
dignity of Caesar. The sin against the Creator is be- 
yond the power and province of the civil law to regu- 
late, and the violation of the civil law is equally beyond 
the province and pov/er of the supernatural part of re- 
ligion, and when this difference between these inde- 
pendent powers is more appreciated and understood, 
Caesar will have less difficulty in governing his sub- 
jects, and religion less to complain of in the way of in- 
fidelity and indifference to its dogmas. One will be 
the handmaid of the other and both engaged in a com- 
mon object, the welfare of the governed and their ulti- 
mate salvation. And with an international code of 
morals severed from supernaturalism, it is not impos- 
sible that Christianity, with its illimitable capacity for 
absorption, its great truths and its adaptation to all 
of the spiritual wants of man, will soc.i dominate and 
enlighten the world. 

The fate of the various diverse sects in the event of 
a universal unification presents a simple, problem not 
difficult of solution; they will merely disappear, or 



52 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

rather, become merged into various schools of phil- 
osophy or societies for social purposes. There will not 
be any place for them as separate and distinct re- 
ligious systems or bodies, for the very object of their 
existence as independent bodies will have ceased to 
exist. 

Moreover, when the State shall have absorbed what- 
ever of morality and moral law they now seek to thrust 
upon it, there will be nothing left for them to operate 
upon. Their occupation will be gone. It may be 
they will find scope for their departed usefulness as 
methods of religion in societies organized for political 
reform or good government. The signs of the times 
are that the majority of them are already forestalling 
such an event. 

The universal tendency is towards a codification of 
the moral law into the municipal code, and when that 
has been accomplished and put into practice, the fur- 
ther continuation of church organizations to inculcate 
that which the arm of Caesar has been selected not 
only to inculcate, but to enforce, would be a mere 
form, a ceremony based upon the municipal law as its 
liturgy. More or less of an unmeaning and empty 
husk, inasmuch as the proper enforcement of the moral 
law will fall within the purview of political selection. 

It is not assumed that there would be any the less 
necessity for the worship of God, and the maintenance 
of some kind of system which would preserve the rela- 
tions between man and his Maker, and provide for the 
distribution of grace to resist temptation and avoid 
those sins of the heart which can never be reached by 
any system of human legislation however perfect, but, 
so far as sectarianism is concerned, that would be a 
mere system of ethics and any particular form of re- 
ligious worship useless and unmeaning, the majority 
of the sects being wholly dependent upon the outward 
observance of the laws of morality for their existence. 

There can be no other outcome for the attempt to 



THE COMING CAESAR. 53 

extend the authority of Caesar over human acts not 
essentially based upon the contractual relations exist- 
ing between citizens. It is out of the question to argue 
that the Church, or any church, eo nomine, can be 
united to the State, for that can never happen unless 
a definite answer can be given to the question: 
"Which church shall be the State Church?" Unlimited 
variety being strong enough to prevent any particular 
church from mounting the throne with Caesar. 

From all these ideas may be extracted one which 
presents itself prominently to the mind and reasoning 
faculties, and that is: If the efforts of the syncretists 
and their attempt to co-operate with the State result in 
success, the outcome will be a Pagan Caesar. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SOCIAL CRIME. 

If society takes charge of human affairs, it must pay 

the price. Its management up to the 

present time has not proved 

a magnificent success. 

"Chris Merry, who murdered his wife, will 
set up the defence of degeneracy. An at- 
tempt will be made to prove that society is 
to blame for the crime. Talesmen were 
asked if they understood the words 'hered- 
ity' and 'environment' as applied to crime. 
The inference drawn is that Merry's attor- 
neys will admit the prisoner's guilt, but seek 
from the study of his past life and the en- 
vironment in which he grew up to throw the 
blame for his crime upon society." 

— Daily newspaper. 

It required a long time for emotional insanity to 
take its place as a legitimate defence to an indictment 
for murder. It dragged in with it a host of other de- 
fences which have become established as precedents, 
and are usually successful if the expert testimony for, 
outweighs that against, by even a scintilla. The advent 
of these defences injected into the body of criminal 
practice a new chapter in the text books on evidence, 
and, so far as heinous crimes are concerned, the guilt 
or innocence of the accused now depends upon the 
views of experts upon the criminal's mental or physi- 

54 



THE SOCIAL CRIME. 5S 

cal condition, whicli may be either metaphysical, as 
emotional insanity, pschic epilepsy, paranoia, hypnot- 
ism and religion, or physical, as eroticism, dipsoma- 
nia, dyspepsia, opium, cocaine, etc., which are the re- 
sults of certain habits affecting the mental balance 
uhfavorably. The catalogue is quite extensive, but 
most of them are mere subdivisions of the former ex- 
clusive defence of emotional insanity, and are the 
dominant defences in murder cases. 

While these criminal defences have become quite 
common and successful in homicide cases, reaching 
even into the lesser crimes, as appears in the defence 
of kleptomania as an excuse for larceny, and hypnot- 
ism in robbery, and rape cases, there has always been 
a strong desire to discover a universal defence to cover 
all grades of crime not covered by those defences 
already utilized. This is quite in keeping with the 
well known maxim: It is better that ninety-nine 
guilty men should escape than that one innocent man 
should be convicted. The one innocent man, it will be 
seen, is well provided for, but the other ninety-nine 
are more or less exposed to conviction. However, a 
safe means has been discovered which will place the 
acquittal of every innocent man beyond a peradven- 
ture, and give the ninety-nine guilty ones the full bene- 
fit of every presumption. 

In the defence shadowed by the text taken from the 
columns of a daily newspaper, there will be found the 
root of all the other defences, and the basis of all 
crimes not committed in the heat of passion or self-in- 
duced mental disturbances. It will justify the cold, 
mathematical, premeditated homicide, committed with 
all that gusto and hearty free will common to those 
who have a grievance which our sadly deficient and 
badly constructed laws cannot remedy. 

In "environment" we are able to perceive the ap- 
proaching cataclysm, or revolution, which is to restore 
human rights to the pedestal from which they have 



56 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. | 

been ruthlessly torn, or rather shaken like ripe per- j 

simmons into the lap of rigid forms of law, red tape | 

methods, blind justice and the all-powerful and ab- ] 

sorbing trusts and combinations of capital. That the j 
storm is coming is evident by the advance puffs of 
wind. And why not, indeed? 

Ravachol, the French anarchist and multi-murderer, 

guillotined for his numerous murders, declared at his j 

trial that his homicides "were committed for the good ; 

of society." "The social system," said he, "is so badly ■ 

organized that it is necessary for the producers, who j 

have no share in the profits of their own labors, to kill : 

in order to live." This statement is said to have ] 

created a sensation in court and throughout the civil- \ 

ized world, but it did not and it has not yet added ; 

anything to the wage of labor. ! 

If the social system were perfect, or even making : 

any satisfactory strides towards perfection, such an ; 

arraignment, from such a source, would have fallen j 

coldly upon the ears of his judges, and the world at j 

large would not have noticed it with a shudder. j 

It is certainly true that our whole social fabric is I 

based upon a false, delusive and oppressive foundation. ; 

It needed not the words of an infamous assassin to j 

demonstrate that. There is not a single department in i 

our whole system of laws and government, as in- ! 

terpreted by our judicial officers, that is not decayed l 

and wholly ineffectual to accomplish the objects con- j 

templated in its creation. i 

This is not a baseless assertion, for it is founded j 

upon the attacks made. upon our social system by a i 

host of reform associations and theologians, to whom : 

it would be unjust to attribute personal or ambitious ] 

motives, and improper to denounce as Pharisees, | 

hypocrites and liars. There is an army of active and \ 

earnest workers in the cause of humanity who are ] 

putting forth the most gigantic efforts to bring about \ 

absolutely needed changes. And we must assume that ; 



THE SOCIAL CRIME. 57 

our vast aggregations of reformers, agitators, the- 
ologians and protective societies are exact in their re- 
peated charges that our whole social fabric is rotten. 

Kavachol and the reformers, etc., are therefore in 
accord, differing only in their method of relief. The 
former advocates murder as the appropriate remedy, 
the latter, paternalism, confiscation, the destruction of 
personal liberty and disregard for personal, constitu- 
tional, or family rights. Instead of a knife being put 
in the hands of our youth of the schools with which to 
run amiuck among mankind, as Ravachol taught, they 
are inoculated with pessimistic ideas, and their minds 
are filled with forebodings of dire disaster. 

From the pulpit, the press, the lawyer, statesman, 
educator, and from the rostrum of all sorts of advo- 
cates of reform, charity, benevolence, higher life, the- 
osophy and even over the graves of the dead, are scat- 
tered the words which a prominent American states- 
man, lawyer and educator uttered before the pupils of 
a great State university, not long ago: 

"I dislike above all things to assume the attitude of 
an alarmist or to indulge in the dyspeptic forebodings 
of a pessimist, but I cannot be oblivious to the fact 
that there are gathering clouds whose breaking may 
be of the utmost consequence to our institutions. 
The large and constantly increasing number of wealthy 
men in the older settled sections of the country can- 
not justly be accounted for on the sole ground of great 
natural resources and freedom of action. To my mind 
it is impossible for any single generation to obtain 
fairly and without encroachment upon the body of the 
people the enormous fortunes, the figures of vv^hich 
we are utterly unable to comprehend. I see with sor- 
row an abject deference to wealth which foreshadows 
the drawing of those lines which separate the few from 
the many. This is a dangerous sign." 

This is Ravachol, this is Mr. Merry, the dis- 
tinguished wife murderer, whose name appears in the 



58 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY 

text to this chapter. But it is also the heart cry of a 
poHtician, an office seeker, and a man whose arms 
have been in the pubhc treasury up to the elbows for a 
generation. He is the ideal American stump-speaker 
obtaining votes from a deluded constituency, hood- 
winking the people, fooling them all the time in spite 
of Abraham Lincoln's maxim to the contrary. 

But there is grave reason for such language, and 
in any other country, and under any other form of 
government, the clouds would break, a revolution 
would take place. We have a crowd of meddling busy- 
bodies, who assume to themselves all of the purity and 
goodness of mankind; people who meddle with law, 
government, individual liberty, create doubts and stir 
up the consciences of their victims on religious and 
moral propositions which they do not understand; 
people who live in Duluth and worry over the condi- 
tion of the citizens of New Orleans; clergymen who 
leave their sheep to go about among the wolves; dis- 
eased minds who teach the inmates of our prisons 
that they are victims of bad treatment and martyrs to 
official cruelties; wealthy organized charities which 
spend three dollars in salaries for every single dollar 
devoted to charity; bigots who hold a bowl of soup in 
one hand and a tract in the other and refuse one with- 
out the other; cranks who weep over the skin of a 
dog or horse and carry pocketbooks of human leather; 
lawless creations that deprive mothers of their chil- 
dren and separate husbands and wives, and last, but 
not least, the sentimental aspirants of refinement and 
the higher life. A simple country lass, with rosy 
cheeks of health, and eyes beaming innocence, comes 
to the city with her fellows. Lowly in education and 
wants, ignorant of the ways of the world, as v/ell as 
unprepared and unfitted for any station above the one 
she has always occupied; herself and her companions 
satisfied with their lot, and honest and unaspiring: 
along comes an intermeddling serpent who pities their 



THE SOCIAL CRIME. 



59 



ignorant, simple, lowly lives; takes them by the hand, 
and amid music, paintings and statuary, raises them 
up to the higher aspirations of culture and refinement. 
"Ye shall be as gods." The leaven of discontent works 
and ruin follows, or else an advertisement after the 
following fashion: 

"A refined young lady without a home, and destitute 
of the necessaries of life, is compelled to beg help from 
her former friends. 

"Address Mary E., Gimxcrack office." 

The former friends do not hear Mary's cry, they are 
the intermeddlers who do not help, they create the 
beggary of education and refinement. 

Environment will 'soon become a valid defence to 
fraud, deceit, robbery and more heinous crimes, and 
the way is created and left open for their commission. 

And why not? Is not the force of example, the imi- 
tative instinct, the most powerful incentive in our 
social relations? The strength is not given to every 
one to say: -'Vade retro, Sathanas" — Get thee behind 
me, Satan — and hence it is, that in accordance with the 
doctrine of responsibility, even as accepted by the 
most liberal-minded theologian, the victim will escape 
with a lighter punishment than the tempter. "The 
Tempter or the Tempted, who sins most?" queries 
the Immortal Bard, and who shall answer the query 
by relieving the tempter from responsibility? 

Common observation tells us that there is not a 
single precept, command or advisory inhibition In 
either the Law or Gospel that is not being constantly 
violated, repudiated or construed into naught. The 
most seductive means of avoiding them are strewn 
along the pathway of man, even by the most rabid 
guardians of the moral law. When the ordinary snares 
and pitfalls, spread before the feet of mankind, are not 
sufficient to entrap him, others in infinite variety are 



6o THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

set and dug, so that man is constantly treading upon 
the edge of some pit, or always just ready to thrust 
himself into a snare. There are even those who ven- 
ture within the danger line to ascertain whether they 
have strength and virtue enough at their command to 
resist falling in, and they openly boast of their prowess. 
But alas! the test of resistan-ce ends in discomfiture. 

The Saviour and his disciples lived not in palaces, 
nor were they clad in fine raiment. Their table did not 
groan beneath the weight of the choice and dainty 
things of earth, nor were their ears tickled with a 
concord of sweet sounds, nor their eyes drunken with 
the exquisite shapes of fairy dancers. No stately 
temples, glittering with' jewels, the ransom of the 
poor, and vicing with each other in style, architecture, 
art and ceremony, witnessed the elevation of their 
hearts to God. They v/ere wanderers in the fields, the 
highways and byways, and the prisons knew them 
well. Their mortal remains were not exposed to multi- 
tudes of sorrow scavengers, surrounded by gorgeous 
draperies, extravagant ceremonials, smoking incense; 
no relatives or friends, or even well-wishers, published 
their simulacra and glowing obituaries in the harlot 
breeding newspapers, and squabbled over their relict 
wealth, yet they feared temptation, and their constant 
prayer was: "Lead us not into temptation." 

If they shuddered at this bugbear of temptation, 
with the living Saviour in their very midst, whence can 
come our strength and heroism to resist v/hen He is 
only a memory? We have grown bolder than they, 
and our boldness and presumption is as great as their 
humility was infinite. We have donned a farcical 
armor of righteousness, and create imaginary foes with 
which we battle, expecting to receive a badge of 
heroism. 

The solitary serpent of the original Garden has been 
multiplied into a myriad; the one original temptation 
ha§ been subdivided into as many new ones as there 



THE SOCIAL CRIME. 6i 

are new serpents to whisper them into man's ears, and 
when man falls as easily as did his first and original 
progenitors, think you he will be punished as they, by 
exclusion from Paradise? Nay, that Fall has already 
been punished; the punishment of the modern Tempta- 
tions and Falls will be visited upon the authors of our 
social crimes. 



CHAPTER VL 

E PLURIBUS UNUM. 

We may be able to find something to comfort us be- 
hind this escutcheon. 

"One of many." Such is the motto upon the es- 
cutcheon of the United States of America. 

It is not given to all men to comprehend the full 
significance of this badge of the Federal Union, a 
general government inclosing a combination of spe- 
cial, independent State governments — a wheel within 
a wheel, yet never interfering, when the principles up- 
on which those governments are based are properly 
regarded. This is elementary knowledge, but it is 
necessary to reiterate it here and establish it as the 
basis of a proposition from which the deductions in the 
following chapters may be drawn. 

The material, personal welfare of an individual de- 
pends not only upon the form of government under 
which he is a citizen or a subject, but also upon the 
manner of administering the afifairs of that govern- 
ment, history demonstrating that a good form of gov- 
ernment may be unwisely administered and a bad form 
of government wisely administered. In the former 
case the governed derive no benefit from a good sys- 
tem, whereas in the latter case the governed are bene- 
fited by a bad one. 

There is nothing mysterious in the term ''govern- 
ment," it being a mere aggregation of certain indi- 
viduals who assume the control of the destinies of seg- 
regated individuals called citizens or subjects, and the 

62 



E PLURIBUS UNUM. 63 

shaping of those destinies, whether for the benefit of 
the governed or in the interests of the governing class, 
is what determines the question of good or bad ad- 
ministration. 

It is historical that the great body of the people of 
every nation, that is, the majority, have been used as 
props to maintain some fancied superior right of the 
minority to dominate and assume the charge of the 
destinies of such nation, and that the greater the ac- 
cord between the majority and the minority govern- 
ing class, the more powerful and more enduring the 
nation, whereas, on the contrary, where discord ex- 
isted, the nation became subject to continual changes 
through internal revolutions or outside interference. 

The fact is, there never existed a nation which did 
not oppress its citizens or subjects at some period of its 
history, and even when an oppressed people have suc- 
ceeded in throwing off the shackles of slavery, their 
leaders always fell into the same oppressive system 
as their predecessors. So the world has gone on since 
its beginning, and so it is to-day without change. It 
always has been and is now the people who are down- 
trodden, oppressed and deluded. Their chains are 
being continually broken and replaced upon their 
limbs. 

This apparently never ending condition of human- 
ity, the constant elevation of the people of every coun- 
try from the degradation of slavery and misery of op- 
pression, to the light of freedom, and their subsequent 
replunging into the slough, has furnished many brill- 
iant minds with the argument that what has been and 
is will always be. Hence anarchy, nihilism, commun- 
ism, socialism and other experimental methods of re- 
lieving mankind from their shackles. 

If the human mind could conceive free men as being 
offered their choice of slavery or freedom, and volun- 
tarily as well as cheerfully selecting the condition of 
slaves, there would be little hope of ever redeeming 



64 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

man from degradation; indeed, it would be a work of 
supererogation to attempt it. But it happens that no 
link in the chain which shackles the limbs and intelli- 
gence of man has ever been forged by his own free 
will, but always by the power or persuasion of those 
constituting the minority above referred to. 

In the United States there is no occasion for or util- 
ity in anarchy, nihilism, socialism, communism or 
other remedies deemed appropriate in other nations 
for the assertion and preservation of human rights, 
because all of these remedies are included in the basic 
principles of our form or system of government and 
they may be utilized to their fullest extent, limited only 
by that universal principle behind all of our consti- 
tutions and laws, to wit, "Sic utere tuo ut alienum 
non laedas," which is to say: So use thine own as not 
to injure another. It is the doctrine of equal rights 
in every sense. A man may do whatever he chooses, 
remembering only that every other man possesses the 
same right. Where there is any clashing or interfer- 
ence th^re is an invasion of the rights of others and 
the act becomes a wrong. And this invasion of the 
rights of another does not cease to be a wrong when 
committed by a large number, the rights of the indi- 
vidual being paramount and superior to the wrongs 
inflicted upon him by a body of aggregated citizens. 
Where he has no remedy the law still regards it as a 
wrong under the name of "damnum absque injuria," 
a wrong without a remedy, but still a wrong. 

The United States is a government "of the people, 
by the people and for the people," which definition has 
passed into a truism that has no exceptions. But to 
avoid the perils of mobocracy and provide a system of 
government, the people, in whom reside all civil pow- 
er, have surrendered certain of their rights in written 
instruments termed "constitutions," which are the ce- 
ment that binds together the subdivisions of the vari- 
ous independent sovereignties called "States," which 



E PLURIBUS tJNUM. 65 

go to make up the whole Union. But wisdom teaches 
that contiguous independent sovereignties are continu- 
ally engaged in conflicts with one another, and there- 
fore they have yielded up certain of their rights in a 
written instrument known, as the "Constitution of the 
United States, "under which the Federal government 
operates for the mutual benefit of the sovereign States 
and to preserve the peace between them, as also to pre- 
serve and maintain the form and system of govern- 
ment adopted by the people. It holds them in the 
firm grasp of an indissoluble government, an indis- 
soluble Union which no power can abrogate or dis- 
solve because it is a contract. The same principle of 
contract relations exists in the various State constitu- 
tions, for which reason our whole form of government, 
whether Federal or State, county, township or munici- 
pal, is one of contract between the people themselves. 
The Federal government cannot interfere with the 
State governments, nor can the latter interfere with 
the Federal government nor with one another. Every 
one of them being supreme and independent within the 
sphere of its own constitutional limitations, with a re- 
serve powder, not parted with, still remaining in the 
body of the people. 

Upon this basis of non-interference the country has 
always moved smoothly, with an occasional clash, it 
is true, as its history demonstrates, but not serious 
enough to cause a permanent divergence from the 
basic principles or to cause even a flutter of fear that 
there could ever be sufficient centralization in any of 
the mutual parts of our whole system to indicate the 
approach of imperialism. 

Deeper than the conflicts alluded to in the pages of 
this country's history, are signs of the times that indi- 
cate a possible and probable future change. These 
changes are radical and subversive, but are not suffi- 
ciently considered, being brushed aside as impossible 
of fulfilment, or else those who are interested in bring- 



(£ THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

ing about those changes are so bitterly virulent in their 
denunciations of any one who even attempts to guard 
against them, that the rank and file are afraid to inter- 
pose an obstacle to their success. 

The question is: Who shall administer the affairs of 
the government? 

Until quite recently the fact that all classes of the 
people were entitled to share in the administration of 
their own aflairs was undisputed. It was always con- 
ceded that when men stood upon equal political rights 
there was no exception to the right to hold office, the 
sole question being the proper and equitable execution 
of the laws in accordance with their intent and spirit 
as the laws of a people's government, and not accord- 
ing to the rules of construction observed in foreign 
nations, and their enforcement and observance equally 
and in all directions. 

But a radical change of ideas in this respect began 
to make its appearance openly about the year 1896, 
when it became manifest from the constant reiteration 
of it, that a mere difference of opinion as to the proper 
policy to be pursued in administering the affairs of the 
nation, was sufficient to preclude all but the dominant 
party from sharing in the administration of affairs. 
This was based upon the patriotic ground that the 
dominant party alone was right in its policy, was alone 
the patriotic party, and exclusively entitled to the 
loaves and fishes of office. It, and it alone, was the 
sole judge of what was good for the country and for 
its people. It was a species of political dogmatism and 
civic infallibility, which, strangely enough, would 
create a revolution even in Germany, where the 
^'divine right" is certainly rampant. 

This superiority of right was also based upon the 
fear that a certain class of our citizens, if permitted to 
aid in the administration of affairs, would infringe 
upon some fancied inalienable rights of the others, and 
that a reign of injustice and anarchy would ensue. 



E PLURIBUS UNUM. 67 

One can almost fancy an application of the fable of the 
wolf and the lamb. Not only was this bugbear of 
anarchy found in an opposite political party, but it 
was extended to the individuals of that party, and 
further found in every other individual not a worship- 
er at the same shrine of opinion as the dominant but 
timorous party, 

A notable illustration of this tendency and fear of in- 
terference appears in the Westchester county. New 
York, case, alluded to under the chapter entitled 
''Money." The assessor at Mount Pleasant is a me- 
chanic and, therefore, under *'01d Peter's" rule should 
have stuck to his bench and not presumed to engage 
in politics or hold ofhce. This assessor was declared 
to have assessed the property of a wealthy resident on 
an exorbitant and malicious valuation. The Court 
says in its decision: ''The assessor is proven to have 
asked for votes in his favor because he, if elected, 
would put the taxes on the relator (the wealthy man) 
and relieve the poor." This was regarded in the nature 
of a bribe to the voters, although it elected him, and a 
promise of theft, or "robbery of the rich." A promin- 
ent metropolitan newspaper, in the ring referred to, 
alludes to it as "A full-blown exemplar of the piratical 
populistic policy of robbing the rich, known as Bryan- 
ism," Mr. Bryan, being the gentleman who has been 
condemned for his audacity in daring to be a candi- 
date for the Presidency in a people's government, al- 
though fully one-half of the entire nation approved of 
him. 

It does not seem to have entered into the minds 
of these patriotic friends of humanity, the leaders of 
whom are perpetually consigning the great body of 
the people to perdition, as obstacles in the way of their 
schemes, that when a candidate offers to reduce taxa- 
tion and relieve the moneyed man, it is not only brib- 
ery, nor robbery of the poor, but a wise, moral, and 
patriotic policy. We have, elsewhere, alluded to the 



68 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

curious fact that substantially all of our recent legisla- 
tion and administration of the laws has been in the 
direction of relieving the oppressed rich man, and 
grinding the faces of the poor,, who are considered 
anarchists if they complain. 

That there has arisen in our midst, growing out of 
numerous measures, including the civil service reform, 
an aristocracy of officials, out of which is growing the 
elimination of the laborer, agriculturist and business 
man from public affairs, is too plain to be gainsaid. 
Whether it will be permitted to gather strength until 
it not only dominates, but completely absorbs public 
affairs, is a matter which concerns the great body of 
the people, who have it in their power to either nip it 
in the bud or supinely submit to it. In the latter case 
the master and servant idea of the nations of Europe 
will prevail, and the only true American citizen will 
be the man who holds office, or who has an influence 
with the official element. The others will be the 
hewers of wood and drawers of water, the draft horses 
who toil and sweat to earn taxes for the benefit of their 
masters, the milch cov/s to be regularly milked. 

It may happen, then, that men will grind their teeth 
in impotent rage and look back and sigh for the time 
when they, too, were free American citizens, and when 
there was hope in the future for them and their chil- 
dren. 



CHAPTER VIL 

EPLURIBUSUNUM. 
(Continued.) 

We are on the right, but, to be sure, let us look 
further into it. 

The nature of the mutual contract between the peo- 
ple of the United States is clearly set forth in the 
preamble to the Constitution: 

"We, the people of the United States, in order to 
form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure do- 
mestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and 
establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America." ' 

Not so very long ago a foreign labor agitator, land- 
ing in this country for the first time, saw people ac- 
tually working — they were longshoremen. Commiser- 
ating their downtrodden condition, he mounted a bar- 
rel and began a harangue with the intent to incite a 
"strike," and tie up the fleets of commerce because 
the longshoremen of England were downtrodden. He 
had just landed, had traveled first class, wore good 
clothes and received a comfortable salary for attending 
to the business of agitator. Moreover, he was nice 
and fat. Compared with him, the grimy, sweating- 
longshoremen were indeed a sorry lot, badly in need 
of "boiled" shirts, patent leathers, a big gold_ watch 
chain and a diamond ring, all of which this friend of 
the downtrodden sported. 

69 



70 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

As is customary in an American city of the first 
class, in case of a dog fight or circus of any kind, a 
crowd gathered to enjoy the proceedings. But a 
minion of the law in the shape of a policeman quickly 
put a stop to the effort to relieve the oppressed, pulled 
the foreign gentleman down from his barrel and pre- 
pared to "run him in" for obstructing the street. The 
fellow expostulated and demanded the privilege of free 
speech, which he said was guaranteed him by the Con- 
stitution of the United States, a copy of which he drew 
from his pocket. The upshot of it was that both the 
agitator and the Constitution were deposited in jail, an 
act of tyranny over which a certain class of newspapers 
raved for several days thereafter. 

Again, a workingman in greasy overalls once ob- 
truded himself among the cleanly dressed people and 
clean surroundings of the Art Museum in New York 
Central Park. He was quietly requested to remove 
himself and his incongruous smudge from purer sur- 
roundings, and upon his insisting upon his rights as 
an American citizen, he was thrown out. A perfect 
deluge of venom was spewed upon the rich by the class 
of newspapers above referred to, and the removal of the 
dastards who dared infringe the constitutional right 
of an American citizen was demanded, and certain 
labor unions passed resolutions of denunciation. But 
the Art Museum went right on with its business. 

It is related in Chapter VIII. of the Acts of the 
Apostles that a eunuch of great authority under 
Queen Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, was one day 
sitting in his chariot reading Esaias, the prophet, when 
along came Philip, who heard him read. To him 
Philip said: "Understandest thou what thou read- 
est?" And the eunuch replied: ''How can I except 
some man shall guide me?" 

The account goes on to say that Philin explained 
the prophet to him, until, filled with the humility of 
understanding, the eunuch confessed his belief, begged 



E PLURIBUS UNUM. 71 

for baptism, after which he went on his way re- 
joicing. 

This ilkistration is not given to draw a comparison 
between the Enghsh agitator and the eunuch, because 
that would be an insuh to the memory of the eunuch, 
but to illustrate the idea that the pride of ignorance 
leads to jail, whereas understanding leads to rejoicing.. 
It is the understanding of the objects expressed in the 
Great Contract between the people that makes the 
American citizen; its wilful misinterpretation or mis- 
understanding makes the alien or traitor. 

There is a multitude among us whose citizenship is 
merely a domiciliary accommodation, or one of per- 
sonal interest and gain. Their citizenship is a dead 
one, killed by the letter instead of being quickened by 
the spirit, or, as is the case with the Scriptures, its 
meaning is wrested from its true intent and purpose. 
It is not necessary to suffer martyrdom to become a 
genuine American citizen; indeed, there is no indi- 
vidual on earth who would fight Caesar and a vvhole 
den of lions quicker than an American citizen if his 
rights were being interfered with, or even if he only 
thought, so. , There is no spirit of martyrdom in him, 
he is the incarnation of political liberty; the right to 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness pervades his 
whole being, and where that spirit does not exist or is 
weak and temporizing, the individual is either a slave 
or is willing to become one, or, like the eunuch, he 
does not understand. But who shall make him under- 
stand? Who shall be the Philip to guide him on his 
way rejoicing, the policeman to lock him up in jail if 
he will not understand? 

There is nothing to be explained, no mysterious 
prophetic language to be construed. A single indi- 
vidual on a solitary island, a shipwrecked mariner, for 
instance, is "absolute monarch" of all he surveys, but 
another mariner shipwrecked on the same island re- 
duces that absolute sovereignty to an equal sov- 



T2. THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

ereignty. That is all the mystery there is in American 
citizenship — equal rights — no intrusion by any one, 
not even by the government, because that government 
is by the people themselves and is organized to protect 
them in their rights and not dominate them.» 

There never was a government with a system so 
elastic as that indicated by the objects expressed in 
the above preamble to the Constitution. It extends 
over and includes every idea and point connected with 
human rights and their protection without interfer- 
ence. The "good of the State," the "good of the peo- 
ple," has often been the flimsy veil behind which poli- 
ticians and political parties sought to screen a con- 
templated invasion of the rights of the people, but 
when exposed to the scrutiny of the courts or of a 
watchful people, they have been invariably detected 
and their authors and abettors condemned to political 
oblivion. It is the opinion of the people, public opin- 
ion, that in most cases determines and explains the 
meaning of those rights, but public opinion must not 
be based upon imaginary rights outside the letter and 
spirit of our agreed rights. People are quick to com- 
prehend when their rights and privileges are threat- 
ened. They are the policeman who consign to jail the 
foreign agitator, the Art Museum employee who 
throws out the dirty overall man, the Philip who sends 
the eunuch on his way rejoicing. They have been 
and will often be again misled by the schemes of poli- 
ticians, nay, their dearest wishes have been and will 
often be again refused them, but they come back again 
and again until their desires are gratified. As Mr. 
Lincoln said: "You can fool ah of the people some 
of the time and some of the people all of the time, but 
you can't fool all the people all the time." 

It is a source of deep regret, even to say it, that the 
"some of the people" who "are fooled all the time" are 
generally those whose rights are all the more precious 
to them, as they have very little else. Life to them is 



E PLURIBUS UNUM. ^z 

on a narrow margin, and is too short to wait until all 
the people move in what is denominated a "land slide" 
to get rid of obnoxious agents or change some per- 
nicious financial policy. 

The details of administering the affairs of govern- 
ment are not complicated under our system, and they 
may be easily regulated and controlled. The fact that 
they are made complicated and difficult by red tape, 
forms, ceremonies, toadyism and various other inci- 
dentals and non-essentials, is evidence of mere inno- 
vations tending to reduce our government to the same 
plane as that occupied by other nations. When a man 
is "in a hole" he tries to persuade everybody else to 
get in with him, and he often succeeds in doing it to a 
greater or less extent. It is the same with certain per- 
sons who select certain standards suitable to their own 
ideas of morals, religion, government and social or 
business matters, and then endeavor to compel others 
to follow the same standards. These eccentricities, 
however, are not part of our system, they are mere in- 
dications of personal or ofhcial vanity, a vanity that 
would wear stars and garters if it could; which may be 
so intensely English as to turn up the bottoms of its 
pantaloons on a dry day in New York because it is 
raining in "Lunnon;" so French that it cultivates a 
goatee and a fierce mustache and dines on frog legs; 
so German as to ape the swash buckler and walk over 
common trash; so Russian as to go unwashed and with 
frowzy hair and beard; in fine, so Chinese and Japan- 
ese as to wear pajamas and pigtails publicly. All such 
personal idiosyncracies are not national, they merely 
excite amusement or affect one to tears at the idiocy 
of mankind. 

The American citizen is superior to all this vanity 
and toadyism, for he is armed with the ballot as with 
a sword, and whether he wears a dress suit or overalls 
he may strike for his rights and hew off the barnacles 



74 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

and parasites hanging to the ship of state and re card- 
ing its progress. 

In the chapter entitled 'The Crimes of Ir^crmed- 
dlers" other and more serious dangers arc adverted 
to and explained, the object of this chapter being -to 
show that every American citizen is his own Philip, his 
own guide, his Americanism, like nerves, telling him 
of the approach of danger. He needs no foreign 
parasite to interpret his rights for him, all such he col- 
lars, as did the policeman, and "runs him in." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COORDINATE BRANCHES OF ' GOVERN- 
MENT. 

How "E Pluribus Unum" should operate and how 
it does not. 

The Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches 
or departments. These independent, coordinate 
branches constitute our government. 

The idea was given to the world ages ago by the 
sage Aristotle, but it was not until the early decades 
of the i8th century that it became a fixed principle 
deemed necessary to secure and maintain human 
rights. It was Montesquieu who forced it upon an 
enthralled world, and out of the seed planted by Aris- 
totle and the plant nourished by Montesquieu grew 
the vigorous tree of American liberty. 

"There can be no liberty," says Montesquieu, "if 
the judicial power be not separated from that of the 
legislative and executive. If it be part of the legisla- 
tive authority, its power over the life and liberty of 
citizens would be arbitrary. If added to the executive 
function, the judge would become an oppressor." 

This was the stain upon the English system, which 
was modeled upon that of Germany. As said one of 
the greatest of American statesmen of recent years, al- 
luding to our modern judicial system intruding upon 
the other coordinate branches: "It was a judi- 
cial tribunal in England, surrounded by all the forms 
of law, which sanctioned every despotic caprice of 
Henry VIII. , from the unjust divorce of his queen to 

75 



^(i THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

the beheading of Sir Thomas More; which hghted the 
fires of persecution that glowed at Oxford and Smith- 
field over the cinders of Latimer, Ridley and John 
Rodgers; which, after elaborate argument^ upheld the 
fatal tyranny of ship money against the patriotic resist- 
ance of Hampden; which, in defiance of justice and 
humanity, sent Sydney and Russell to the block; 
which persistently enforced the laws of conformity that 
our Puritan fathers, persistently refused to obey, and 
which afterwards, with Jeffries on the bench, crim- 
soned the pages of English history with massacre and 
murder, even with the blood of innocent women." 

Their separation was a badge of freedom, which 
our forefathers, endowed with the wisdom of the 
past and filled with prophetic visions of the future, 
fixed upon as the corner-stone of the people's govern- 
ment established by them. 

But this is elementary history, and within the 
knowledge of every American citizen, though it is 
sometimes forgotten. 

There can be no intrusion by the Executive. An- 
drew Johnson attempted it, but the spectre of im- 
peachment, although harmless, compelled him to re- 
trace his steps. 

If there ever was a time in the history of this coun- 
try when the Executive might have become a usurper 
it was at the close of the War of the Rebellion, when 
victorious troops and trained generals could have 
been induced to obey the orders of their President and 
Commander-in-Chief. But the thought never oc- 
curred to him or them. That would have been revo- 
lution, and revolution is not an American remedy. It 
was tried once but failed, although it cost a million 
lives and billions of treasure. It is well that this coun- 
try is not a military country or pervaded with the 
spirit of militarism. Soldiers obey orders against their 
own in hke manner as against the enemy. They are 
not citizens, they are machines. 



COORDINATE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT. 'J^ 

Was it the memory of that great unsuccessful revo- 
lution that moved Samuel J. Tilden to silence when 
he was defrauded out of the Presidency by Ruther- 
ford B. Hayes? He had more than half the nation at 
his back had he been pleased to strike for his rights, 
if he had any, and for the rights of the majority of the 
people, if they had any. He was a civilian and not a 
soldier, therefore it was not cowardice if open resist- 
ance to alleged fraud and injustice never occurred to 
him or to his followers; they were Americans. 

No, it is not in the Executive that there is anything 
to fear. He is only one man, a mere figurehead like 
the royal personage at the head of the English system. 
Indeed, his power is not so great as it was prior to 
Andrew Johnson's time; the un-American fancies and 
whims of that Great Disreputable manifesting possible 
future disorders, the President's power and influence 
were curtailed to obviate them. 

The danger of clashing is nearer home to the peo- 
ple, so close to them, in fact, that they have become 
accustomed to its presence and do not fear it. It is in 
the courts, those falsely named "people's fori," whose 
province it is to construe and pass upon the constitu- 
tionality of all laws whenever the questions are 
brought before them, and it has become so common, 
even in petty cases, to raise questions of constitutional 
and statutory construction, that our law reports teem 
with what is known as "'judge-made law," that are 
made precedents to destroy the legislative intent and 
usurp the functions of the law-making branch of the 
government. 

Charles Sumner, the great American statesman, 
whose words have already been quoted, and whom no 
one may accuse of anarchy, has this to say further 
upon this question: 

'1 hold judges in much respect; but I am too famil- 
iar with the history of judicial proceedings to regard 
them with any superstitious reverence. Judges are but 



78 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

men, and in all ages have shown a full share of 
frailty. 

"Alas! alas! the worst crimes of history have been 
committed under their sanction. The blood of mar- 
tyrs and patriots, crying from the ground, summons 
them to judgment. 

"It was a judicial tribunal which pushed the Saviour 
barefoot over the pavements of Jerusalem bending be- 
neath his cross; it was a judicial tribunal which ar- 
rested the teachings of the great apostle to the Gen- 
tiles and sent him in chains from Jerusalem to Rome; 
it was a judicial tribunal which, in the name of the old 
religion, adjudged the saints and fathers of the Chris- 
tian church to death in all its most dreadful forms; and 
which afterward, in the name of the new religion, en- 
forced the tortures of the Inquisition amid the shrieks 
and agonies of its victims. 

"It was a judicial tribunal which in France, during 
the reign of her monarchs, lent itself to be the instru- 
ment of every tyranny, as during the brief reign of 
terror it did not hesitate to stand forth the unpitying 
accessory of the unfitting guillotine. 

"It was a judicial tribunal in our own country, sur- 
rounded by all the forms of law, which hung witches at 
Salem; which affirmed the constitutionality of the 
Stamp Act, and which now, in our day, has lent its 
sanction to the unutterable atrocity of the fugitive 
slave law." 

Charles Sumnerlived to see the day when the usurpa- 
tions of the judiciary and its disregard of human 
rights cost the nation a million lives and tons of treas- 
ure. What would he now say at the sight of judicial 
tribunals trampling the poor under their feet by re- 
pealing the income tax law; relieving the rich from the 
payment of taxes; crushing out the life blood of the 
nation by upholding the tyranny of corporations, trusts 
and syndicates; depriving accused persons of the bene- 
fit of bail; imprisoning without benefit or bail or be- 



COORDINATE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT. 79 

cause their poverty precludes them bail, the innocent 
witnesses of some petty crime; maintaining the arbi- 
trary power of peace officers to arrest without war- 
rant and on mere suspicion; inflicting cruel and un- 
usual punishment upon forlorn and friendless women 
whom society has driven to the sale of their bodies for 
bread; imprisoning for non-payment of taxes where 
payment is impossible; sending to jail a poor man un- 
able to support his family; confiscating hundreds of 
thousands of dollars' worth of property for a mere 
technical violation of a revenue law; inflicting a sen- 
tence of three thousand years in a penitentiary for sell- 
ing beer on Sunday; imposing a fine and imprison- 
ment until paid, for selling peanuts and ice cream on 
the same day; depriving widows and orphans of their 
rights through a misplaced punctuation point in a will, 
or through a misconstrued sentence; winking at the 
open manufacture of criminals and the commission of 
crimes to enable religious fanatics to reform sinners? 

Under the influence of popular clamor, moved by 
private pique or from motives of revenge upon some 
political opponent, judges do not hesitate to distort 
the meaning of laws and destroy their purpose and 
intent. 

The elementary principles lying at the root of all 
of our American laws are few and easily understood, 
and the rights of the individual as an individual and as 
a citizen are clearly defined. Indeed, a single volume 
once contained them, and every one knew and under- 
stood them. But now there is no more simplicity or 
clearness, and the expansion of elementary principles 
of law requires carload lots of volumes. There are 
conflicts of decisions not only in the courts of the dif- 
ferent States, but in the courts of the same State, even 
in the decisions of the judges of the same court. Statu- 
tory and constitutional questions have become so 
numerous that it is impossible to follow the conflicts of 
opinions concerning them. In all of the various but 



8o THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

well defined transactions between men, so vast and in- 
numerable a variety of precedents and conflicting pre- 
cedents have been established, that it is as impossible 
for the human mind to follow or comprehend them 
as it is the sixty-four thousand articles of faith at- 
tached to the Buddhist religion. To-day a suddenly 
discovered precedent will give the plaintiff a judgment, 
while to-morrow, upon the same state of facts- and 
upon the same evidence, in the same court, the defend- 
ant will prevail through the discovery of a conflicting 
precedent. It is no longer law but precedents that 
govern our courts, and the precedents are created by 
the courts themselves. 

Though the presumption is in favor of innocence, an 
accused person is held to be guilty and compelled to 
establish his innocence. Protected in his shield of 
innocence and not required to convict himself, never- 
theless, he is placed in some "police sweat box" and, 
after the manner of the Spanish Inquisition, racked 
until he accuses himself or some innocent person. 

Legislatures vie with the courts in muddling the 
rights of individuals and of citizens, and what with 
unconstitutional laws, judge-made laws, precedents 
and misappHcations of the simplest elements of justice 
and right, the harmony between the legislative and 
judicial branches of the government is fast being ob- 
literated and law has become a game of chance, a mat- 
ter dependent upon the whims of a dyspeptic judge, or 
a case of bargain and sale either in cash or influence. 
The lawyer who now cites law instead of precedents is 
regarded as too antiquated to be employed, and if he 
cannot find a precedent he is expected to manufacture 
one which will be acceptable and flattering to the Court 
and justify oppression. 

What is the cause of all this jumble and confusion 
of justice and equity? Why cannot the rights of the 
individual and citizen be determined by the simple ap- 



COORDINATE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT. 8i 

plication of equally simple principles as in former 
times? Some say that modern occupations have be- 
come so multitudinous and the relations between men 
so various that there cannot be an application of sim- 
ple principles, and that there must be a precedent in 
every case. There is certainly a precedent in every 
case and sometimes several, but that is judge-made law 
and a judge-made government. It is not the fault of 
an increase in varieties of business relations, it is the 
attempt of the legislatures and courts to get away from 
the immutable principles of justice and equity, and 
provide a covering or disguise for their jobs, con- 
tracts and iniquitious selfish ends. Every known de- 
vice and schemic is resorted to for the purpose of 
screening their usurpations and to justify the destruc- 
tion of political and individual rights. Truth and 
right are simple, falsehood and wrong multifarious. 



CHAPTER IX. 

INDEPENDENCE. 

There are some things not within reach of Independ- 
ence, but there are also some things that 
cannot be taken away from it. 

This much sought after mortal condition is satis- 
fying when enjoyed by a man of independent means; 
otherwise it is a quality partaking of the disposition of 
the mule, a boorishness, demanding certain exclusive 
prerogatives to the detriment of others. 

Whoso would maintain his independence should be 
compelled to enjoy it apart from the rest of humanity, 
because every manifestation of independent action is 
an infringement upon the equal rights of others. 
Hence the independent man is a nuisance to be abated. 

A man carrying a pot of paint through a crowded 
thoroughfare, another transporting a long ladder on 
his shoulder under like circumstances, a filthy, un- 
washed chump rubbing against decently dressed and 
clean citizens, a woman wheeling a baby carriage, the 
man with a zigzag walk, a blind man feeling his way 
with a long pole, a licensed vendor of traps and calam- 
ities, and the like, are examples of independence, but 
exhibit so much of the don't-give-a-cent-for-the- 
rights-of-others spirit that they may all be declared 
nuisances. 

"Why should I not do this, that, or the other thing?" 
Of course you may, friend. There is nothing to pre- 
vent you. This is a free country, where one man is 
supposed to be as good as another, and where every- 

82 



INDEPENDENCE. 83 

body is at liberty to make an ass of himself if he 
choose, but another fellow is at liberty to put a bit and 
bridle on you if you do. Please remember that. 

If all the cases of alleged interference with the so- 
called "rights" of others were closely investigated, 
ninety per centum of them would be found to be 
merely an interference with hoggishness. Why must 
I do what another insists upon my doing? Why 
should he not do as I wish? The rule of Christian 
charity and forbearance has no application because it 
is a rule that works both ways, and the other fellow is 
bound by it as well as myself. A boor jostles me on 
the street, I jostle him back again. He looks at me 
fiercely indignant; says I am no gentleman. Very 
good; but that is a non sequitur; I am entitled to a 
place on the sidewalk. 

The fact is, the one who has nothing to lose is the 
most independent being on earth, but give him a job, 
and he touches his hat and cringes. He knows very 
well that if he keeps on treading on my corns he will 
lose his situation. So it goes in- every condition of 
life, except with pawnbrokers. The man who offers 
you a gold brick does not fling it at your head, he is 
excessively smooth and oily, and he shows you so 
much . courtesy and deference that you actually feel 
flattered at being skinned by such an agreeable gentle- 
man. It is the same feeling that induces a man to 
yield up his seat in a crowded street car to a suffering 
woman; she appeals to him in her look, whereas at 
the slightest display of independence, he retains his 
seat and does not feel mean about it either. 

It should be understood that there is no reference 
here to political independence, an independence which 
consists principally in exercising the right of suffrage 
in behalf of the wrong candidates, and never being able 
to select an administration satisfactory to the country 
at large, but to that personal sense of superiority some 
people possess, which goads them into holding up 



84 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

their chins and throwing out their breasts so far that 
they are unable to notice other people on earth. A 
turkey gobbler does that, but we all know that a tur- 
key gobbler is more appreciated after death than when 
alive. We can all see what we aim to see to better 
advantage by not obstructing the view of others, for, 
to recur to the turkey gobbler simile, we. may have to 
mourn the loss of our tail feathers. 

Seriously speaking, however, there is a very indis- 
tinct line of demarcation between personal, natural 
rights and political rights. The expression ''Equal 
rights," that so glibly rolls from the tongues of male 
and female stump speakers during political campaigns, 
is very much exaggerated and misconstrued. We 
have "popular rights, State rights," women's rights, 
labor rights, religious rights, moral rights, and 
all sorts and kinds of "rights," including the 
rights of horses, dogs, cats and even fish bait, all 
jumbled up together in the same pot, stirred up and 
poured out as legal rights. Every one is apparently 
claiming under the nomenclature of "rights" whatever 
he or she deems desirable to have done and do it un- 
molested by every one else. Added to this should 
be the great desire of people to do as they think ad- 
visable and compel everybody else to submit or send 
them to jail if they rebel. 

To judge from the deafening clamor and the mortal 
struggles to obtain some new kind of a right and en- 
force it against others, it would appear to a stranger 
that no person in this country has any rights at all, 
and that we are not permitted the right to live and 
breathe unless the privilege is fought for or made a 
plank in some political platform. But a person to the 
manner born and acquainted with the peculiarities of 
the American people does not understand that all this 
hullabaloo about rights means that the citizen is 
greatly suffering from loss of his personal rights, but is 
fighting to preserve his political rights. 



INDEPENDENCE. 85 

Indeed, there is something sought to be covered by 
all this clamor for rights which will operate to protect 
everything from earthworms up. There is too much 
smoke for so little fire; we are using deodorizers in- 
stead of disinfectants. When a man begins to preach 
about his honesty and his virtue, he is preparing the 
way tor overreaching his neighbor in a commercial 
transaction or betray a woman. If the student of hu- 
man nature has not yet learned this simple peculiarity 
of human nature he is still in the elements of his educa- 
tion. 

In theory, one man is as good as another, practically 
it is not true. The man who obeys the law is a better 
man than he who violates it. Our most insane moral- 
ists concede this much, for they are always preaching 
it. "Obey the law," they roar in everybody's ears, in 
and out of season, and they form all kinds of societies 
to take the enforcement of the law out of the hands of 
the officials selected for that purpose, and enforce it 
themselves — not with any very great success it must 
be confessed — but they do as much meddling as they 
can. Very well, then, but how is it when one's per- 
sonal and political rights are violated, hampered and 
restricted? Are you not in that case a violator of the 
law, and although a moralist, a worse man than I, who 
insist upon the maintenance of those rights as a mat- 
ter of principle, affecting as it does others besides my- 
self? You preach ''obedience to the law," and when 
you imagine everybody does not see through your lit- 
tle scheme, you procure the passage of laws which 
take away my rights. Your law is no law at all, and 
therefore I have the right to resist it, all the greater 
right to resist and^ violate it, than your right to pro- 
cure its passage. I am a peaceable, law-abiding citi- 
zen, while you are a disturber of the peace. It is my 
right, and I am at liberty to suppress you and your 
pretended law, because you violate the organic law. 
Your moral ructions are mere subterfuges to cover the 



86 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

desire excessive piety and fanaticism have always pos- 
sessed to interfere with and destroy human rights. 
You are resisted not because he who does so is an 
enemy of God, as you are conceited enough to im- 
agine, but because he knows that if you are allowed to 
deprive him of one right you will keep on until he has 
no rights left except what you choose to permit him 
to exercise, one of which would be the right to go to 
church, and another the right to swallow his spit. 

Here is the gist of independence, liberty and equal 
rights: Every citizen has an equal right to do as he 
thinks proper to protect his life, exercise his liberty 
of action and pursue happiness, provided that in exer- 
cising those rights he does not clash with the free ac- 
tion of every other citizen. He is at liberty to assert 
and maintain his rights against whomsoever may seek 
to take them away from him. A man may protect his 
property against a thief, or he is at liberty to commit 
homicide in the defence of his own life, or in protect- 
ing the lives of those dependent upon him; he may 
even do so to save a stranger to him. "Stand aside, 
my friend," you may say, "you are obscuring the sun; 
you interfere with my breathing; you are preventing 
me from earning a livelihood; I wish to vote the other 
ticket; I wish to drink beer on Sunday," and so on. 
All these are liberties, equal rights, and in the exer- 
cise of them the citizen is independent, that is, he may 
or may not exercise them. To compel him to choose 
is to destroy his liberty, to punish him for choosing is 
a crime. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE CRIMES OF INTERMEDDLERS. 

There are too many busybodies interfering with our 

affairs. It is possible to get rid of them 

if we set about it in earnest. 

One of the causes which destroyed the Bastille, and 
removed the head of a French king, was the excessive 
use of arbitrary power, derived from what is known 
as the "Police Power," and manifested in "lettres de 
cachet," insolence of the nobles, the subjection of the 
people to the whims of officialdom, and the oppression 
of the people assumedly for their benefit. The rights of 
the people were all merged in the rights of the offi- 
cials, and it was the latter who determined the quality 
of privileges and the quantity of individual rights that 
should be permitted then. The people were the bond 
slaves, forced to follow in the train of Caesar, and add 
eclat to his triumphal procession. 

In spite of the lessons drawn from the events of his- 
tory, there are those in this country who hanker after 
the fleshpots of Egypt, and presume to take upon 
themselves the regulation of the affairs of the people, 
overflowing into the same condition of things that 
brought about the stabbing of Caesar, finis Poloniae, 
Wilham Tell, the Fall of the Bastille, and our own 
War of Independence. 

The "divine right" and the "Police Power" are so 
closely connected and so easily run together that it 
behooves American citizens to be upon their guard 
against it. It is the power seized upon by the various 

87 



88 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

intermeddlers with our affairs, whether foreign or do- 
mestic, to the undoing of the inherent and inaHenable 
rights of citizens. It is not being exercised all at once, 
by the way, but step by step, as will be made clear 
hereinafter. 

Blackstone, the father of English law, defines it to 
be: "The due regulation and domestic order of the 
kingdom." "Le roy le veut," and that is the end of 
it, whether the people will it or not. Its meaning has 
been extended in the United States until, instead of 
one king, we have a thousand and more kings, includ- 
ing party ''bosses," policemen, constables, foreign agi- 
tators, clergymen, female emancipators, and numerous 
others — "legion" is their name — all striving to mold 
the body politic in their own groove, all quarrelling 
with each other, and all striving to prevent the loaves 
and fishes from reaching the multitude. The body 
politic has been fretted with so many kinds of different 
remedies, administered by so many different kinds of 
quacks, that it has become syphilitic, and covered with 
raw and bleeding sores. 

The courts in this country, following upon the mon- 
archical idea, have defined this Police Power as: "The 
power of the State, through all its agencies, both gen- 
eral and local, to preserve order, regulate intercourse 
between citizens and insure to each the lawful enjoy- 
ment of his rights. It embraces in its most compre- 
hensive sense the whole system of internal regulation, 
and extends to the protection of the lives, limbs, 
health, comfort and quiet of all persons, and the pro- 
tection of all property within the State." To this has 
been added "morality," in deference to the theological 
branch of intermeddlers. 

It will be observed that the definition is quite satis- 
factory, and there would not be the slightest com- 
plaint, were it not for the misinterpretation and mis- 
application of the doctrine expressed in the definition. 
The power, defined, must necessarily be subject and 



THE CRIMES OF INTERMEDDLERS. 89 

subordinate to the rights expressed in the organic law, 
and to those reserved by the people. Any arbitrary 
exercise of it is as much of an illegality as the viola- 
tion of any positive law, and is all the more criminal, as 
it is the undermining of the foundation of our entire 
system. An open attempt to interfere with our sys- 
tem was defeated by force and arms, and oceans of 
blood are spilled to maintain it. Whence it is that the 
enemies of a free people, and the diminutive kings 
among us depend upon bamboozle for success. Let 
us specify. 

Our police, instead of being peace officers, have de- 
generated into spies tO' detect crim^e after it has been 
committed. The detection of crime is proper enough, 
since crime should not go unpunished. But that is 
not the sole business of the police; they are peace 
officers, and it is as much their duty to prevent crime 
as it is to ferret it out after it has been committed. 
What becomes of our theory of government under a 
management that practically manufactures crime in 
order that there may be arrests and imprisonment? No 
despot ever 'did this. He manufactured offences, but 
he did not tempt their commission. The tempter is 
the accessory and his crime should be punished with 
more severity than that of the tempted. The crime of 
Satan was more devilish than that of Eve. What the 
people are entitled to is protection; punishment is not 
protection, that is nothing but a species of revenge for 
tampering with the majesty of the law, and in these 
latter days it is assuming the most cruel forms. 

In the license features of our laws, a man is licensed 
to do a legitimate business which at certain periods 
during the life of the license becomes an illegitimate, 
unlawful business. That is to say, under our police 
system a thing is made both right and wrong, which 
Is going further than theology. Of course. It Is not 
denied that a man should not do certain things at one 
time which he is at liberty to do at another. For In- 



90 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

stance, practising on a cornet may be allowable at cer- 
tain times and not at other times. Such things are 
rights which do not need licensing, regulation being 
sufficient. They are mere conveniences that may be- 
come inconveniences under certain circumstances, and 
the law prohibits them when inconveniences. But it 
is in the licensing of trade and occupations that the 
baneful effects of an arbitrary use of the Police Power 
is apparent. It is not denied that regulation is more 
or less necessary in human transactions, but it is an 
exaggerated exercise of the power to regulate, by cast- 
ing a man into jail and depriving him of the benefit of 
counsel, fracturing his skull if he dare insist upon his 
rights, and submitting him to the most unparalleled 
exactions, damages, detriment and ruin of his busi- 
ness. This is not regulation, it is oppression, confis- 
cation, whether committed by a small magistrate on 
the charge of a small policeman who was the tempter 
in the transaction, or by Mr. Justice Brewer, of the 
United States Supreme Court, ratifying the confisca- 
tion of a million dollars' worth of property because 
of some trifling violation of the letter of an internal 
revenue law, as was done in Kansas; or Mr. Chief Jus- 
tice Fuller, of the same high American court, approv- 
ing a sentence amounting to three thousand years in 
the penitentiary of Vermont, imposed upon a citizen 
for selling beer on Sunday, a mere municipal regula- 
tion and not a malum in se, or the equivalent of a 
murder. The law is not so sacredly majestic in this 
country as in Russia, Turkey or China, where even a 
cat may look at a king, and an American citizen is not 
obliged to take ofif his shoes in any throne room and 
knock his forehead on the floor three times to express 
his admission of and his submission to its sacredness. 
The question is, who is injured? If no one but the ad- 
vocates of the law or the sentimental idiosyncrasies of 
fanatics, then the punishment transcends the limit of 
American punishment. ''Excessive fines shall not be 



THE CRIMES OF INTERMEDDLERS. 91 

imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted." 
That is the American letter of the law and its spirit. 
Such demonstrations of arbitrar)^ power possess no 
value as warnings or preventives, for the American 
spirit is so constituted that it will not submit to any 
lash. We do not have to cut ofif heads here to 
frighten others, if we did it is highly probable that the 
executioners would not go very far nor fare very well. 

Whatever may be the requirements of regulations 
attached to licenses to do business of any kind, and li- 
censes are not granted for an unlawful business, there 
should not be attached to their non-observance the 
quality of punishment attached to crimes known as 
"mala in se," and nowhere on earth, particularly in a 
country based upon the freedom of its people, are vio- 
lations of mere municipal regulations visited with 
martyrdom and confiscation except in the United 
States. 

Who is to blame for this condition of things? At 
whose instance and suggestion and .through whose in- 
fluence are these constant violations of the letter and 
spirit of our organic law committed? They are due to 
the efforts of certain agitators, ill-advised persons, who 
are so enamored of their own perfections that they 
have elevated them into standards for all to follow 
under penalty of damnation or the public jail. They 
are worse than the untutored Indian, for they see not 
God in clouds nor do they hear Him in the wind. 
They see devils in the smallest cloud and hear Satanic 
voices whispering to them from the wind. It is the 
self-sufficiency and stupidity of the sects that through 
some fancied "divine right" drag ruin and political 
death in their train. Assuming to fight the spirits of 
darkness, they find Satan in the liberties of American 
citizens and seek to destroy him by destroying them. 
If the rights of American citizens are iniquitous or 
sinful, if this government is Belial and his followers, 
there is no objection to their praying and tearing their 



92 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

own hair — nay, they are at Hberty to become martyrs 
in their cause, but there is neither sense nor reason in 
martyrizing others upon their aUars. 

These people are intermeddhng with things that do 
not concern them, because others have rights which 
they should be compelled to respect. They are bring- 
ing about a condition of things that will some day 
react upon all that is good in the world, and destroy 
the good they so ill-advisedly seek to accomplish. 
The chapter on "The Coming Caesar" indicates what 
the end will be. 

But worse than they — for fanaticism, being a species 
of idiocy or lunacy, is excusable to a certain extent — 
are the perfectly sane politicians and those who follow 
their train for official or business advantage. The 
memory of Judas is not regarded with very much en- 
thusiasm in this country, and Benedict Arnold has no 
friend to lay a wreath upon his grave, yet we daily hob- 
nob with "prominent" and "distinguished" persons, so 
they are termed by the intervievv^ers, who do not 
scruple to enact the combined roles of Judas and Bene- 
dict in their political acts. It is not regarded as a very 
serious thing — a mere pleasantry — when some insig- 
nificant right is restricted or destroyed under the 
specious plea of exercising the Police Power for the 
protection of the morals of the people. When a large 
contract or a valuable franchise is "held up" it is not 
on "moral" grounds, nor the protective instinct and 
spirit; nor when any legislation connected with money 
is on the tapis it is not opposed for fear the dear people 
will be injured in their property, it is that superior pol- 
icy which prompts the politician to find out "hovv' 
much there is in it," which moves him to oppositio:: 
until he is "fixed." But on the contrary, when there is 
no money in it and the matter is one of pure right and 
freedom and the people are liable to derive some bene- 
fit by being permitted to exercise their rights, they are 
interfered with on high moral grounds; they are not 



THE CRIMES OF INTERMEDDLERS. 9.3 

to be trusted with the enjoyment of their privileges ex- 
cept in the manner laid down for them by the inter- 
meddlers. 

Intimately connected with these godly and godless 
intermeddlers is another class of people who itch to 
meddle with our system of government and the man- 
agement of our afifairs. There are numerous speci- 
mens of American citizens educated in foreign schools, 
or who have imbibed the notions of foreign writers and 
so-called scientists, who know as little about managing 
the affairs of their own countries as they do about ours. 

A short time ago (August 18, 1898), a prominent 
and distinguished apostle and friend of labor declared 
from a public platform: "With the stronger bond 
which is now being woven between England and 
America we are sure to receive some of the good 
points from English politics." 

His hearers sat as mute as did the distinguished 
representatives of the American newspapers when the 
Vice Roy of China, Li Hung Chang, assembled them 
all together and asked them what objection they had 
to the Chinese becoming American citizens. And 
when he went on and told them, of the "good points" 
from Chinese politics that would be brought here, they 
were as dumb as clams. It never occurred to them 
that non-assimilation destroyed these "good points." 
The fact is we have already got so many good points 
from the politics of every nation on earth that our own 
good points are buried. It is time to resurrect them. 

The people who come to our shores find so many 
points adopted from the political system of foreign na- 
tions sticking to us like barnacles that they do not per- 
ceive that we have any of our own at all, they only see 
that by following those good points we are getting 
worse and they good-naturedly add to the general 
confusion by giving us some more. We permit them 
to manage the affairs of our country according to their 



94 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

own fashions and according tc their own traditions, 
and not according to our own. 

It is due to the growing sentiment that our laws, 
manners and customs are not as good as those of other 
countries, that social and political revolutions are coif- 
stantly going on. We are always in a state of social 
and political anarchy. Our oil and the water of the 
feudal system will not mix. We have become so ac- 
customed to have foreigners and foreign ideas interfere 
in the management of our affairs that we have come 
to look upon it as the proper thing for them to do. 
We labor to adapt our social system to the vagaries of 
Ibsen and Tolstoi; accept the putridities of Zola and 
d'Annunzio as images of our own moral condition; 
we crowd out everything distinctively American and 
take to our arms the brilliant, bejeweled and dazzling 
robes of foreign systems without a thought of the 
filthy, unwashed condition of their undergarments. 
The rifTraf¥ of Europe, Asia and Africa dictate to us 
the manner of enjoying our rights; we give them the 
right of suffrage, drop our h's and try to become ac- 
customed to their style of cookery. We elevate to 
important offices a class of men who would be unhappy 
in heaven unless. they were engaged in the task of re- 
modeling its form of government. 

We are not so great a nation that we cannot have 
a downfall, and though we may laugh and snap our 
fingers at the idea of such a calamity, it must be al- 
lowed, judging from the light of history and accord- 
ing to reason and common sense, that a nation which 
permits outsiders to manage its affairs and dictate its 
policy will change, imperceptibly, it is true, but the 
time will come in a future generation when there will 
not be anything of consequence left to change. What 
will our children's children have to say then? 



CHAPTER XL 

THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE. 

The indications are that the right of suffrage will 

eventually be limited to a select few and the 

public thereby relieved of its burden. 

The right of free speech and the right of the people 
to assemble and petition for a redress of their wrongs, 
or, as the Constitution of the United States expresses 
it: ''The right of the people peaceably to assemble and 
to petition the government" for a redress of grievances 
under our imperial system of municipal government 
and its moral law regulations is destroyed by the po- 
lice, in conformity with the ordinances prohibiting 
public assemblies, which are permitted when in ac- 
cord with the powers that be, if not they are construed 
as "disorderly" meetings and suppressed. 

Were it not for the "press," that clarion of freedom, 
in spite of the manifest corruption of many of its mem- 
bers, the people could not be upon their guard against 
the stealthy inroads constantly being made in their 
liberties by scheming politicians. The right of suf- 
frage is held up like Moses' serpent that all may look 
upon it, exercise it and live. 

What is this right of suffrage which many of our 
courts say is not a natural right and therefore may be 
restricted and even taken away altogether? In the 
present condition of things, if a man is registered it is 
the inestimable privilege of voting for a string of can- 
didates selected for him by somebody else, men he 
does not know, never saw and has only read about in 

95 



96 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

the newspapers that praised them at so much per line 
of praise, or in the expectation of getting a printing 
contract, and whose platform is a tissue of guit and 
molasses thrown together for the purpose of catching 
votes, prepared in the same manner as a fisherman 
prepares a tempting bait on his hook to catch gud- 
geons and suckers. It is of no value to the owner, be- 
ing like a promissory note that is protected at maturity 
for non-payment, but it is of great value to the candi- 
dates and his party if they get enough of them to make 
even a majority of one or a plurality. 

It is said that a poor man's vote will offset that -of 
a rich man. It is not true, and our political history 
and the knowledge of every man who has ever had 
anything to do with the inside of politics in this coun- 
try will tell him that it is not true. If the poor man 
were patriotic and the rich man honest, then the prop- 
osition would be correct. The rich man's vote is 
greater than that of the poor man, because his dollars 
represent the number of votes wealth is able to pur- 
chase, which, of late years, has been enough to con- 
stitute the majority. When dollars do not directly buy 
votes, the expectation of getting them and threats of 
loss of means of earning them accomplishes the same 
purpose. 

Whether is worse, the rich man who buys votes 
directly or indirectly, or the poor man who accepts the 
purchase price? The poor man is certainly the more 
despicable, for it is through him that his fellows are 
maintained in poverty. It is no crime for a starving 
man to take bread not his own, but he must not take 
the bread away from a fellow starveling. With the 
rich man it is business or, perhaps, the salvation of the 
country by retaining the loaves and fishes of office. 

Whatever there is valuable in the exercise of the 
right of suffrage, that is, the quantity necessary to 
control, is in the hands of political organizations, the 
most powerful the world ever knew, known and desig- 



THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE. 97 

nated by the name of ''machines," and when the people 
cast their ballots for any candidate, or series of candi- 
dates, whether for a high or low office, they are not 
exercising their own free will in the matter, but are 
expressing the will of the machines. Occasionally 
some really independent party is formed out of the 
"dissatisfied" who ''split" their party, and the nev/ 
party elects a few candidates for minor offices, or they 
are allow^ed to, and in the pride of what they call "suc- 
cess" they set up a great hurrah. But they soon dis- 
appear and are known no more, for they have no or- 
ganization, are not machines, and for all the good they 
ever accomplished they are mere blisters on a wooden 
leg. 

The machine in politics has assumed huge, over- 
shadowing proportions, even controlling the manage- 
ment of the affairs of the government, and it has the 
power to make or break any man in the country. 
When the will of the people is found to be so strong 
in favor of some particular man not of the machine 
selection, the machine bows to the will of the "dear 
people," nominates the people's candidate, and then 
secretly "knifes" him at the polls.. This is the reason 
why some very good and able men, whom the people 
desired to elect, have been defeated. 

At the head of the machine is a supreme National 
Committee, at whose headquarters is recorded the 
exact political condition of the entire country. Not an 
acre of ground that contains a voter or a probable 
voter is omitted, and its record of births, deaths and 
marriages is a model for Boards of Health. It is like 
a huge map for war purposes, and on it are indicated 
the location and political complexion, as well as the 
leaning of every voter in the country. Every change 
of residence, every defection from the ranks by any 
voter is noted, and he is followed up and kept track 
of until he dies, and even then his name is kept on the 
lists and his name voted by somebody else. The pub- 



98 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

lie utterances of every individual are carefully pre- 
served in indexed scrap books and form his complete 
political history, to be used for or against him. Not 
a single voter is allowed to escape, all of the minutest 
details concerning him and his surroundings being 
carefully preserved. 

All these details are furnished by subordinate com- 
mittees of the respective parties, to wit: State, County, 
City, Town, Ward, Precinct, dov/n to the corner gro- 
cery and the saloon, where the pothouse politician and 
the ward striker are the ground root of politics and 
the stokers for the machine. Sometimes, to give it a 
moral aspect, a church is dragged in to its aid, and 
clergymen hired to do its bidding. 

The Surveyor General of the United States has not 
a more complete set of maps than this National Com- 
mittee, nor has the superintendent of the United 
States census, or of the State School census, as many 
and as perfect details concerning the population as it 
has. The various machines perform all the man- 
oeuvres of two great armies ostensibly at perpetual 
war with each other, but secretly at peace upon the 
question of loot. They send out couriers, scouts and 
spies; they skirmish, besiege, parley, employ flags of 
truce, declare an armistice, capitulate on the most 
favorable terms; parole, and metaphorically shoot for 
desertion and for sleeping at the post of duty. Their 
sentries have their regular rounds everywhere, and 
all of the signs and portents are watched and carefully 
v/eighed. They send reinforcements, colonize, trans- 
port supplies and ammunition, and distribute all the 
sinews of war, and there is not a hamlet, crossroads 
or mining camp that is left unprovided with mission- 
aries and proselytizers, as well as purchasing agents. 
They levy taxes for revenue, and impose an income 
tax on salaries and wages, and, strange to say, they 
do not seem to care whether it is honest or dishonest 
money, provided it is money. The fact is that the 



THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE. gg 

things the machines do not do and the information 
they do not possess would not irritate the most sensi- 
tive eye. 

But it is in the manufacture of pubHc opinion that 
the machine shines with a splendor that shames the 
noonday sun. The administration desires to pursue 
a policy insisted upon by the wire pullers, but so shaky 
that it dares not originate it. So, to a thousand news- 
papers the machine sends its dictum to advocate a cer- 
tain policy, and behold the press of the country teems 
with ''suggestions;" it writes letters to itself apparently 
from distinguished people advocating the suggestions; 
columns of "fake" interviews are published, and the 
whole country is aroused to the necessity of the adop- 
tion by the government of a certain policy, financial or 
otherwise. People read all these things and say noth- 
ing, because they are not allowed to say anything. 
But the administration bows before the will of the 
"dear people" and the policy is accepted as King Rich- 
ard accepted the crown and turns out the same way 
he did, so far as any benefit to other than a few is con- 
cerned, n the "poHcy" is too bad to be swallowed, the 
administration is goaded into foreign complications 
by the same process, and even a bloody war is inaugur- 
ated, in the expectation that patriotism will conceal the 
cloven foot and enable the same administration to get 
into office for another term. 

This is a mere outline of the political machine 
which determines who shall manage the affairs of the 
Nation, States, Counties, Cities, Towns, Wards and 
Precincts, and who shall have the public contracts, 
furnish coal for the navy, receive high prices for old 
ships, for provisions that never reach the starving 
soldier in the trenches, even down to dictating who 
shall shovel dirt on the streets. It knows to a cer- 
tainty how an election of importance will be deter- 
mined. It knew that the Election Commission would 
decide against Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, for the pur- 



lOO THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

chase of a few doubtful precincts in Florida, Louisiana 
and Oregon had already been negotiated. It deter- 
mined that Grover Cleveland should be elected Presi- 
dent in 1884, and that James G. Blaine should not, be- 
cause Mr. Blaine was too strong to be controlled by 
the machine, and it filled the columns of the machine 
press with attacks upon his honesty, his morals and his 
religion, to induce the feeble-minded voters to knife 
him. When Grover Cleveland got too big for the ma- 
chine he was retired and the weak Harrison substi- 
tuted in 1888. But Harrison proving worse, and more 
obstinate than Cleveland, he was thrown overboard 
and Cleveland given a new trial. It knew that Bryan 
would be defeated, for it was so settled and arranged. 
It knew the power and use of money, and Bryan had 
none, nor had he a machine behind him. He would 
have been a dead loss to the machine. All that the 
dear people have to do with any election is to run after 
the machine and hurrah. 

Drawing the lines still closer, the machine has se- 
cured control of even the primary elections, and the 
conventions of the people are no longer free, and the 
petitioning for a redress of grievances has become a 
dead letter. The machine selects the delegates, the 
delegates nominate the machine ''slate," and the 
machine elected officials, from the President down to 
the Town Marshal, do the bidding of the machine that 
elected them, and thus one hand is made to wash the 
other. It is a wonderfully perfect piece of machinery, 
this political machine. Bonaparte had a machine 
nearly similar, but it was not so effective, for he had 
not imagined our modern style of ''knifing." Had our 
political machine been at his back he could have be- 
come the emperor of the whole earth. 

It is through wise concessions made by the machine 
to those whom it fears may swing public opinion 
against it, or in Avhose good graces it is policy to keep 
to preserve its odor of sanctity, that originate our va- 



THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE. loi 

rious sumptuary laws, and absurd restrictive and pro- 
hibitive regulations, that neither regulate nor prohibit. 
Sunday laws, liquor laws, charities, legislative prayers, 
etc., are all sops to the bigoted Cerberus of the sects, 
and are cast for the purpose of securing the influence 
and favor of the very pious and overly moral peo- 
ple, who are so easily led through the debauchery of 
zeal that they strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. 
Nothing is overlooked, and when the machine can 
neither wheedle nor seduce, it buys. 

Such is the substance of our political system; such 
the value of the exercise of the rightof suffrage. What 
do you think of it, reader? 



CHAPTER XII. 

POLITICS. 

Some of our singular ways of utilizing the right of 
suffrage. 

This government of the people, by the people and 
for the people, is, in its essence, the direct opposite of 
a personal form of government, and has nothing in 
common with what is known as "the divine right," 
being purely political, with every citizen a politician. 
The citizen possesses an interest in the administration 
of affairs and he uses whatever influence he may have 
in the direction of fostering the system, benefiting his 
fellow-citizens or himself personally, as the case may 
be, and is an atom which goes to make up what is 
called the "will of the people" in opposing or favoring 
a certain policy. He does all this through "politics." 
Theoretically his title of citizen opens the way for him 
to the Presidency or the Town Marshalship. 

Under a monarchical or other form of government 
the people are not permitted to have any voice in de- 
termining who shall or shall not administer the affairs 
of the government, that being exclusively in the hands 
of those who claim it through the "divine right" or of 
those who have been powerful enough to seize upon 
and hold possession by force and arms. In such 
cases the relations between the prince and subject is 
that of "master and servant," in many cases "master 
and slave," a condition not possible under the Ameri- 
can system, for the reason that every citizen is an heir 
to the throne, or he may aspire to any office he desires, 

102 



POLITICS. 103 

his right to the office being dependent upon his abil- 
ity to enHst a majority of his fellow-citizens in his 
cause and bring them over to his way of thinking. 

The theory of it is simple enough, and in the early 
days of the nation it was quite practicable; but with 
an enormous increase of a heterogeneous population 
the number of aspirants have largely exceeded the 
offices to be filled, and hence various schemes, many 
of them fraudulent, were devised and are now in full 
operation to secure and retain office in despite of the 
will of the people. The "good of the people" is not 
now so much a matter of consequence as the fact of 
holding office for the emoluments to be gained there- 
from. The "fellow-citizens" idea is but "gufif" from 
the pothouse and a Pharisaical whine from the back 
room of some political cabal, preparing the way to de- 
feat the will of the people and foist upon them dummy 
candidates who have no other will than that of the 
gang which elects them. 

The strain upon the business of the country from 
constantly recurring elections of some kind — there 
being no uniformity as to time — began to deprive the 
business man and wage earner of valuable time, time 
too valuable, so it was said, to be wasted in politics. 
It never occurred to any of these disgruntled citizens 
that they had any political duties to perform, if not in 
aiding to secure a proper administration of affairs, at 
least in protecting and preserving their individual 
rights, so, to save a little time and perhaps a few pal- 
try dollars, the business man and wage-earner aban- 
doned the field of politics, surrendered their birth- 
right as citizens bound to see to it that their rights as 
well as the rights of others were not tampered with, 
and relegated those duties and rights to others. 

Out of this supine citizenship arose the professional 
politician, who with his fellows constitute a class sui 
generis, unknown in any other country in the world. 
It is he who assumes the rights and duties cast aside 



104 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

by the average citizen and appropriates all of the bene- 
fits to himself. He is the attorney, in fact, for the 
rank and file of perfunctory voters, and his power of 
attorney is fast becoming irrevocable. The fact is 
already most apparent that the politicians have 
reached the conclusion that they are the people and 
the rulers of the destinies of the nation, a conclusion 
they have been led to accept by being permitted to as- 
sume the whole burden of politics and reap all of the 
benefits. The vast body of the people are nothing but 
component parts of a great machine and they vote the 
way the machine points, and having done so over and 
over again, they are expected to do so always. In this 
the people strongly resemble a big man henpecked 
by a weak, small woman. He submits for the sake of 
peace, until she actually becomes stronger than he by 
virtue of her influence over him, and his unvarying 
habit of obedience to her whims. Some day he finds 
he has no will of his ovv^n left and then he takes to 
drink or runs away instead of putting his thumb gently 
upon the small woman. She will yield at once, her 
power being mere bluff. 

Political parties have been growing more and more 
dogmatic, until, at the present day, they are not far 
removed from infallibility. Their own lines are drawn 
closer and closer together and further and further 
away from each other and from the people. They^ ac- 
cuse one another of fraud and unpatriotic motives, and 
every one claims to be the only pure and unadulterated 
party, able to undo the wrongs of every other party 
and restore the people to their rights. The rights of 
the dear people are made the shibboleth in every politi- 
cal platform, but as successive parties go in and out of 
office, it is easy to see that there is no patriotism in any 
of them and that the sole attraction is the loaves and 
fishes of office, which are unscripturally divided among 
the disciples and the multitude left supperless. 

"To the victors belong the spoils" is the doctrine. 



POLITICS. 105 

and all of our legislation is based upon the perpetua- 
tion in office of certain perpetual office seekers and a 
general grab g'oing on all the time. To-day, politics 
stands as the embodiment of greed, fraud, knavery, 
corruption and robbery of the masses, and that strictly 
according to law, for when knaves make laws they 
make them so as to protect their ov/n necks from the 
halter. 

This is about the condition of our politics, and the 
wonder is that it could possibly have fallen into such 
a state when it was and is so easy to prevent and cure 
it. But the slave is the author of his own slavery and 
the poor man the creator of his own poverty. The 
degradation of subordinating the administration of our 
affairs to the selfish schemes of those behind whom 
are heelers, ward strikers and pothouse politicians is 
purely voluntary, and the only remedy is in the hands 
of the people if they choose to apply it, to wit, the 
ballot, but they are afraid to rely upon it; they cast 
their ballots in fear and trembling lest they ofTend the 
crowd of political slinks watching them by voting the 
wrong way and thus losing their means of livelihood; 
their x\merican manhood is gone, they have ceased to 
be Americans. 

It requires more stamina and manhood, indeed, to 
be an American citizen than to be a servant or slave 
in any other country. An American citizen stands up- 
on his own mettle, he is free and independent, and 
knowing them, may enforce his rights. Those who 
have been dominated by the master and servant sys- 
tem and come to our shores to be relieved of it, still 
tremble with fear at its shadow, and though they do 
not find it here unless they seek it, they have never 
been able to entirely overcome the nervous dread that 
the lash will come down upon their backs unexpected- 
ly. So the political lash brings to their minds the 
recollections of the old lash from which they fled, but 



io6 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. ' 

if they only knew it they could brush it away as easily j 
as drive a fly away from the molasses pot. j 

The passion for office has become a remorseless j 
craving, a disease that knows no cure except its own ! 
continuance. "Few die and none resign," the wise | 
man puts it, and it has become a truism of universal ac- ' 
ceptance. The youth still in his swaddling clothes, ; 
the maiden in her teens, the fruitful matron and the ! 
impotent spinster, likewise the gray-beard, tottering j 
on the verge of the grave, are all frenzied with its j 
fever and refuse all remedies for its cure. We have | 
asylums for the mentally afflicted of all ages and of ! 
both sexes, but for the insanity of ofhce there is no { 
place of refuge but in the ofhce itself. As in that j 
school of medicine known as "homeopathy," and in ■ 
the disease modern science has tagged with the label \ 
"dipsomania," so in the ofhceholding mania, it is j 
"similia similibus curantur;" that is, one has a fever, | 
so a pill or a powder to produce another but dominat- \ 
ing fever is administered; the afflicted dipsomaniac is ; 
soaked in his favorite beverage and the offlceholder j 
given more office. A change of administration form- i 
erly averted fatal consequences, so also has embezzle- 1 
ment or other heinous crime, but civil service reform i 
has made the disease chronic. | 

There are those who possess the most powerful in- j 
fluence and whose word is law in the councils of poll- ■ 
ticians. Before them offlcials high and low bow with j 
reverence and obey every behest, but they never hold \ 
office. They are the "dii ex machina," the middle ] 
men between the officials and the tiers etat, or the j 
people. They are like the hHes of the field, for they i 
toil not neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his i 
glory, concubines and wives included, was not a i 
shadow to their substance. They have a finger in \ 
every contract, in every public building, every fran- ; 
chise and in the wages of every laborer. They foster l 
labor to their utmost, to the extent even of a multitude ■ 



POLITICS. 107 

of dummies on tJieir payrolls. There is not a man of 
war, a horse, a uniform, a gun, a pound of powder, or 
a piece of meat visible to the naked eye that they are 
not connected with directly or indirectly. The only 
thing they do not at present control is the atmosphere, 
which the government and the people are permitted to 
utilize in their own manner without extra charge. 
They dictate the. policy of the administration to suit 
their own purposes, and call upon the people to bow 
down and worship it. At the slightest sign of rebel- 
lion against their domination out comes the lash, which 
whistles and sings a merry tune as it whacks the backs 
of the recalcitrants until they are glad to kiss it and 
rebel no more. 

Who are these men who are neither kings nor peo- 
ple, yet who rule both? What is the name of this 
anomaly in a people's government? They are "wire- 
pullers" and their name is Legion. They are the 
Lords in Waiting, the Keepers of the Purse, the Cus- 
todians of the Great Seal. They are the early birds 
that get the worm. When the President of this Re- 
public puts his signature to his mandates, a court 
enunciates an opinion, the police "pull" a house, a 
petty magistrate sends an unfortunate woman to jail 
for thirty days and lets go free the scoundrel who 
drove her to that life, it is the wire-puller who stands 
by with his lash and sees that everything is done as he 
desires. Who else is it? You do not suppose, read- 
er, that your wishes are consulted in the matter? 
When the quintessence of wire-pullers, the Speaker of 
the House of Representatives, says: "Thumbs up" or 
"Thumbs down," the whole pretended will of the peo- 
ple in Congress assembled show thumbs up or thumbs 
down as directed. It is the same in every State Legis- 
lature and in every City Council and Board of Alder- 
men of every city in the country where there is a dol- 
lar to be made. Banks are wire-pullers as are also 
Corporations, Trusts and Syndicates; they have to be 



io8 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

to preserve their right to all of the ''honest" money in 
the country. 

The Labor Unions and the body of the people gen- 
erally have no wire-pullers; they think they have, but 
the men they select for that business take money from 
both sides and do nothing for it. There is nothing 
immoral in politics, for even clergymen adopt it in 
their profession. It is the perfection of that well- 
known rule of arithmetic called "Division." What a 
grand combination it would be if the people who can, 
but will not hold the balance of power in politics, 
w^ould become their own wire-pullers ! The man com- 
petent to fill a public office would not then be com- 
pelled to drive a garbage cart, and many of our chronic 
officeholders would be compelled to drive garbage 
carts if, after a civil service examination, they were 
found competent for even that. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

MONEY. 

The "root of all evil" appears to be a necessity. That 
being the case, we ought to know something 
about it. We may read something of it 
in this chapter, but there is much 
food for thought concern- 
ing it also. 

It has become impossible for man to live in the 
present age without money. True, a pauper cared for 
by the public may exist without the personal expendi- 
ture of it,, but inasmuch as his care and keep come out 
of the public funds, the distinction does not reach the 
dignity of an exception. 

Money has become so essential and its uses so 
numerous that there is no longer such a branch of 
political economy as "barter," or the exchange of one 
commodity for another, whatever is convertible into 
immediate money being considered as money. If 
there are any exceptions to this rule, they are mere 
equivalents to the trading of jack-knives by school 
boys, and not worth considering. 

If the learned thinkers of past ages and of a past 
generation, who devoted their lives to the study of 
political economy, that science which comes the closest 
to the welfare and happiness of any people, could visit 
the United States, they would find that their learned 
treatises are chimeras, and that the differences between 
wealth, riches and money have entirely lost their sig- 
nificance and application and that, under our present 

109 



no THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

system, growing out of practical intercourse with one 
another, money has become weahh and riches, and 
that whenever the terms "weahh" or "riches" are used, 
the idea in the human mind is money, not lands, 
houses, flocks, crops, or jewels. Even the question of 
value is one of money. It may therefore be said that 
he who possesses money possesses all other things. 

It is idle to attempt to separate a man's ideas of 
wealth and riches from money, for we have made 
money the essential, the sine qua non of existence. It 
is quite true that a man without money, but the pos- 
sessor of a flock of sheep, for instance, may eat his 
sheep and live, despite the fact that he has no money. 
So also, to preserve the equilibrium of the idea, it may 
be said that a man with a bag of money and no sheep 
would starve in a desert. Neither one case nor the 
other proves anything, any more than does the fact 
that a man may draw his breath without money, or 
enjoy the fragrance of flowers. All these matters re- 
late to personal, domestic economy, which is different 
from political economy, the former relating to personal 
wants, the latter to the wants, needs and demands of 
society, of a people, a nation. It is because we fail to 
draw the line between domestic and political economy 
that we find ourselves in the breakers of financial de- 
pression, general bankruptcy and the miserable ups 
and downs of poverty. Their intermingling is the 
common fault of most of our statesmen, particularly 
those freshly incubated from the chrysalis of machine 
politics. Their ideas are memorized thoughts drawn 
from the pages of crude antiquity, or from the systems 
adapted to nations enjoying the blessing or curse, as 
the case may be, of sumptuary laws and paternalism. 
These crudities are injected into speeches, periodicals 
and newspapers, in disjointed paragraphs, which sel- 
dom rise to the merit of maxims. 

It must be borne in mind in considering any ques- 
tion of political economy, except in the matter of 



MONEY. Ill 

merely gratifying the taste for ancient history, that 
the social conditions in the United States are not only 
entirely different from those in any other country now 
existing, or that ever existed, but are in entire antag- 
onism therewith. Hence, it happens that in attempt- 
ing to measure our system upon the rules that prevail 
in any other country, we are simply creating confusion 
and making wretched work of our own needs and de- 
mands. This is a rock upon which our so-called 
American economists split. They attempt to appro- 
priate principles suitable and proper for a foreign 
nation possessing a radically different system of gov- 
ernment, and in which all of the conditions are diverse, 
and adapt them to our own system. But the attempt 
is as much of a failure as would be the adaptation oi 
the "divine right" of kings to our political system. A 
poor, shrunken garment cannot be made to fit a hale 
and hearty giant. 

Whatever produces anything produces money. 
This is true of land, labor and manufactures. Land 
and manufactures are neither wealth nor riches if un- 
productive,, as it is easy to learn by attempting to 
mortgage them. If one man possesses a thousand 
acres of idle land and another one an idle manufactory 
filled with machinery, even, neither of them can be 
considered wealth nor riches, until they begin to pro- 
duce. There is no intrinsic value to either of them 
until money has been put into them and also taken out 
in productions, and, even in that case, the value of 
either of them depends wholly upon the amount of 
money realized from the productions or the amount of 
money capable of being immediately realized. 

The case of labor presents a dififerent phase, in that 
it possesses an intrinsic value, whether at rest or pro- 
ducing, in that it always requires and demands money 
and likewise produces it. It is in the immediate possi- 
bility of producing money, whence it derives its dififer- 
ence from land or manufactures. To ascertain the in- 



112 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

trinsic value of labor, we merely add the amount of 
wages to the profits realized from the product of it. 
This subject is explained more at large in the chapter 
on ''Labor." 

An illustration of the fact that land and improve- 
ments, under our system, do not constitute wealth or 
riches, is found in the Westchester county, New York, 
case. A wealthy citizen invested two and one-half 
millions of dollars in land and improvements. The 
assessor, laboring under the effete system of political 
economy, taxed it on that valuation, but the Court, 
recognizing the principle sought to be made clear 
here, compelled him to reduce the assessed value from 
two and one- half millions of dollars to $343,745.28. 
There was, it is believed, half a cent more, but the 
Court gave the millionaire the benefit of it in conform- 
ity with the legal maxim, "De minimis non curat lex," 
that is: The law does not care for trifles. This case 
represents the most amazing shrinkage in the purchas- 
ing power of honest money that has ever been re- 
corded, and it is to be hoped, that, in order to save 
the question of political economy involved, it will be 
discovered that the party in question was hypnotized 
into paying too much for the property. 

It is not intended to include sentiment in this chap- 
ter, for there is no branch of political economy that 
will admit of it and, therefore, beautiful landscapes, 
flowery meads, family pictures, a veteran horse, nose- 
gays, or even diamonds and jewelry — for these two 
latter are entirely governed by a money value fixed by 
pawnbrokers — will be disregarded. There is all the 
more reason for omitting them because they belong 
to domestic economy and are not serviceable or utiliz- 
able under our system. With money they can be pur- 
chased, and they have no other significance than that 
attached to a case of fine wine or a bottle of perfumery. 

It is with money, therefore, that we have to do, and 
in it begins and ends our whole system of political 



'money. 113 

economy. All the other things are the ornamental 
frills, and in many cases "impedimenta," as in the case 
of mortgaged property. It is the necessities of our 
American system of civilization that has brought us to 
this point. Having reached it, the natural inquiry is: 
What is this all-powerful money? 

The answer is simplicity itself. It is that medium 
which is immediately convertible into productions. 

A man satisfies his wants and gratifies his eccen- 
tricities with money. If he has no money, and is un- 
able to procure it, his wants pass unsatisfied, his eccen- 
tricities ungratified, and he becomes a pauper. The 
same thing happens to him when he is "land poor," 
as the saying is, that is, he has unproductive land for 
which there is no market, or upon which, mayhap, 
there is a mortgage. Like the other, he is a pauper 
and must starve unless prevented by his charitable 
neighbors. 

Whether mioney be gold, silver, nickel, copper, lead, 
tin, leather, or sea shells, the government fixes its pur- 
chasing value. It possesses no intrinsic value of itself, 
indeed the gold and silver coins of the country are not 
worth their face value in the market, and they are con- 
stantly diminishing in value, by attrition in the pockets 
and bags of their fortunate possessors. A curious 
illustration of this occurs in the case of "sweating" 
gold coins, by shaking them up in chamois skin bags 
or other proper receptacles. By this process as high 
as ten to fifteen per centum of the gold is extracted 
as profit, without diminishing their "passing" qualities, 
except to the government which charges the face value 
of its coins, but when they are returned, it pays by 
actual weight, in which case it will be perceived that 
the "sweater" and the government make quite a hand- 
some profit out of the circulating medium at the ex- 
pense of the people. 

Another illustration of the lack of intrinsic value 
occurs in silver coins, an American silver dollar, ac- 



114 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

cording to the market, being worth only from 45 to 55 
cents, such dollar containing only about 270 grains of 
pure or "fine" silver. In the RepubHc of Mexico the 
silver dollar contains 320 grains of "fine" silver, yet 
its exchangeable value with American silver dollars is 
2 to I, that is one American dollar will buy two Mexi- 
can dollars. But the Mexican dollar will purchase as 
much in Mexico as the American dollar will in the 
United States. So that a man in Mexico with a Mexi- 
can dollar is as well off as a man in the United States 
with a United States dollar. There is not the slightest 
difference in that respect, and it is only when some 
speculator Avishes to make money out of money that 
he makes the exchange. 

Paper money is credit money, but still money just 
as much as gold and silver. There being no intrinsic 
value to money, it matters little whether we have pa- 
per or gold and silver, it being immaterial, in the ab- 
sence of intrinsic value, whether the gold or silver dol- 
lar be worth a dollar or ten cents, or the paper money 
fifty cents per .ream. It is the government which 
places the purchasable value upon the money. It is a 
fallacy to place an intrinsic value upon one coin or 
piece of money and not upon another. To do so gives 
that coin a speculative value, just the same as when 
speculators exchange American silver dollars two for 
one against Mexican silver dollars. To the poor man 
and the laborer it means less bread and meat, to the 
country at large it restricts the currency below the 
needs and demands of business. Of course paper 
money is a mere certificate of indebtedness, a promise 
to pay, identical with the promissory note of any in- 
dividual. In the case of the government promise to 
pay there can never arise the question of insolvency 
or failure to redeem; in the former case the individual 
may fail to pay and then an action is commenced 
against him, his property attached or levied upon and 
sold under execution., the proceeds going to pay the 



MONEY. 115 

note. If he has no property then the holder of the 
note loses his money, charges it up to profit and loss 
or marks up his goods to get it back out of the gen- 
eral public. This can never happen in the case of 
the government, for its debts are paid out of taxes col- 
lected for the purpose; in reality it is the whole body 
of the people paying back to each other the money 
they have borrowed through the medium of their 
agent, the government. This view of the matter is not 
acceptable to many, who choose to regard the govern- 
ment in the light of a private bank to be governed ac- 
cording to the same rules. 

It is within the power of the government to create 
money for the wants and demands of the people, and 
when it takes the position of a private bank and refuses 
to loan the people any more promissory notes, the 
business of the nation suffers, it becomes depressed, 
stagnant, because the ratio between the actual money 
in circulation and credit money is decreased, hence 
credit is destroyed and confidence lost. This will be 
clear when it is understood that there is not enough 
actual cash money in the country to do a cash busi- 
ness; in fact, there is not enough in the world. Whence 
it follows that there must be a credit business and that 
credit business is necessarily transacted through the 
medium of credit money whether that credit money is 
called "promissory notes" or "bank notes." Upon the 
lack of money follow suffering, want, the miseries of 
poverty, shrinkage of values, bankruptcy and ruin. 
The people have no money to buy the necessaries of 
life and they starve, just the same as they do in Turkey 
or on a desert island. The fact that a farmer in Kan- 
sas has sold his wheat crop at a large advance, or that 
the balance of trade with Europe is in our favor by 
two hundred millions of dollars, does not satisfy the 
hunger of the starving citizen of any of our cities, for 
he does not get any of the money. It is turned over 
to those who control it and who make money out of 



ii6 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

money. It is to precious to expend upon paltry 
bread and meat. However, being an absolute essen- 
tial it is doled out in small quantities, just enough at a 
time to make one want more, and then he is in a con- 
dition to sell his soul or his vote to get more. 

It was deemed wise by the government to not only 
refuse to create money for the needs of the people, but 
to restrict it below the amount per capita actually due 
in Federal, State, County and Municipal taxes, includ- 
ing interest on the various public debts. That is, it 
requires all of the money in circulation to pay the 
taxes and interest on the public debts every year, and 
that money not only does not return to the people, but 
they are left in debt. This applies to every man, 
woman and child of the seventy-five millions of our 
population. This restriction of the circulating med- 
ium was adopted as a policy upon the theory that a 
dollar should be an honest dollar, as though any 
money created by the government could be dishonest 
money. The idea brought the government down to 
the level of an individual contemplating the defraud- 
ing of his creditors. Another reason was because it 
was desirable to adapt our financial system to that of 
foreign governments, notwithstanding the fact that this 
country is the greatest producer in the world. It was 
attempting to adapt our system to the bolstering up 
of the eftete systems of Europe, Asia and Africa, under 
which the people toil and sweat for the very poorest 
and most meagre subsistence, thankful that they are 
not put to death as incumbrances in the way of prog- 
ress. The most bitter controversy raged over this 
subject and the restoration of silver money became a 
political issue in 1896, which was defeated, however, by 
a bare plurality, leaving the mass of the people almost 
evenly balanced upon the subject. It is sufficient to 
say here that the financial policy of the government 
produced the most deplorable results. At least 
twenty-five millions of people in the South and West 



MONEY. 117 

were ruined by the sudden shrinkage of values, many 
of them being reduced to absokite pauperism, a 
commercial death blow to a population nearly as great 
as that of England, for whose benefit and at whose in- 
stigation that financial policy was adopted. 

Bearing in mind the fact that money is the essential 
requisite for carrying on the simplest commercial 
transaction, and that there must be enough of it to ac- 
commodate the demands of every branch of trade, the 
reader will be surprised on investigation to find that 
the great body of the people, whose wants are all the 
more pressing, as their interests are smaller and on a 
less margin than those of the wealthy man, were never 
and have never been consulted about the restriction of 
the circulating medium, except so far as their consent 
was inferred by the result of the Presidential election 
in 1896, and even that result was brought about by the 
voice of those who did not fully comprehend whither 
the issues would lead them. One of the issues was the 
specious one of patriotism, but what patriotism had to 
do with thefinancial needs of the country, except to jus- 
tify personal sufferings and poverty from patriotic mo- 
tives, nobody can tell. The whole matter of the finan- 
cial issue was left to bankers and brokers, those who 
handle and utilize the aggregate millions of the people, 
those who hold in their hands the money of widows and 
orphans and of the laboring men. The people were de- 
luded into the belief that their smiall holdings, aggre- 
gating about two thousands of millions of dollars in 
the savings banks and other corporations, would be en- 
hanced in value by the restriction of the circulating- 
medium, and that if not restricted and the people 
should not be deprived of the wherewith to success- 
fully transact business, that all the money of the coun- 
try would be reduced in its purchasing value and ruin 
would inevitably follow. They w^ere told in flowing 
oratorical sentences, in lurid editorials, that the calam- 
ities which would follow the expansion of the currency 
to meet the increased demand for it, was as nothing 



ii8 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

compared with the unsavory reputation which the na- 
tion would acquire as a robber and defrauder of its 
creditors, and the people were urged, besought, and the 
laboring man threatened with loss of employment in 
the cause of good, sound, honest money. The people 
heard the pitiful cries of the bankers and brokers beg- 
ging them to save the government from a felon's cell. 
They accepted martyrdom cheerfully, and like lambs 
went forth to their slaughter with bankers and brokers 
doing the killing. In the meantime, the authors of 
the prosperity that never came up to the predictions, 
laugh in their hoods like the Roman augurs at the 
gullibility of the populace. They mercifully extended 
the mantle of protection over everything speculators 
and the money power could squeeze a dollar out of, 
and not only forced upon us free trade in, but abso- 
lutely prohibited the creation of, our most valuable 
product, silver coin. In other words, we are pro- 
tected where we should have free trade and we have 
free trade where we need protection. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MONEY. 
(Continued.) 

Too much honesty in money matters is injurious. 
There is no objection to a man being 
honest, but honesty need not de- 
stroy common sense. 

It was considered by the old pohtical economists 
that there is a certain amount of work, in the way of 
circulation, which a piece of money will perform that 
apparently enhances its value, likewise its usefulness. 

To illustrate this after an American fashion: Sup- 
pose I have a ham — a ham is used for the purpose of 
illustration because something good to eat will bring 
the truth home to a hungry man quicker than anything 
else, unless it be something good to drink to a thirsty 
man. I may eat the ham, in which case it passes out 
of existence, but as I do not care to eat it, and keeping 
it will suspend its value by withdrawing it from circu- 
lation, so to speak, that is, it will not be of any use to 
me or anyone else, I barter it to my friend John Doe 
for corn, of which article he has more than he can per- 
sonally consume. My friend Doe trades it ofif for a 
pair of shoes, the shoemaker for a hat, the hatter for 
a dog, the dog- man for something else, and so on in- 
definitely, until the ham is finally consumed or returns 
to me again from some debtor in satisfaction of his 
debt. That one ham has performed the service of a 
great many hams, and if I had had a dozen hams they 

119 



120 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

could not have performed or accomplished more than 
the specific purpose to which that single ham was 
applied. True, the dozen hams could have done 
twelve times as much, but that would have been a mere 
repetition. 

Applying this idea to a dollar of actual money and 
the same result follows. The ratio of accommodation 
growing out of the use of a dollar has been variously 
fixed by political economists. It is the one truism in 
political economy which possesses more common sense 
than any of the others, but, unfortunately for us, it is 
the one which is the most constantly violated except 
when it comes to be applied to banks and bankers. 
For some unknown reason it is ignored when the in- 
terests of the people are concerned. 

Formerly, the ratio was fixed at one to seven, that is, 
one dollar would accomplish the purposes of seven 
dollars in circulating value. With us it is about one in 
ten, or a larger ratio if one can be squeezed out of 
money, rmtil the verge of insolvency has been reached. 
We find from bank statements that the ratio of actual 
money on hand, compared with the amount of the de- 
posits, is much greater than this ratio, and the man 
with the "cash" idea imagines that they are all insol- 
vent. According to the well settled rules of business 
transactions, however, there is no insolvency because 
the banks pay out on checks without default, unless 
there is a panic and a consequent ''run" on the bank, 
in which case it does become insolvent, or it ''bursts," 
as we commonly say. It is related of Abraham Lin- 
coln, who once held a small post office, that when his 
term of office expired, and it came to a settling up with 
the government, that he owed a certain amount of 
money for postage stamps sold by him during his 
term of office. Upon a demand for that money, Mr. 
Lincoln gravely drew out a stocking and poured out 
of it on the table in front of the inspector a lot of mis- 
cellaneous coins and bade the official count them. 



MONEY. 121 

The amount exactly equaled the price of the postage 
stamps. He explained that as fast as he sold the 
stamps he placed the money in the stocking because it 
belonged to the government and not to him, and he 
therefore had no right to use it. 

The same idea is illustrated in the case of the Kan- 
sas banker, a farmer, who had accumulated consid- 
erable money. He started a bank for the accommo- 
dation of his neighbors. Very soon everybody for 
miles around began to deposit their money with him, 
and when they wanted any they checked it out. One 
day he refused to pay a check, stating that he had 
no more money to pay it with, and the bank closed its 
doors. A bank examiner quickly appeared to investi- 
gate the "fraud," and the depositors howled for his 
blood. 

The first thing the examiner did was to open the 
safe and to his astonishment found it stuffed full of 
money. Counting it and comparing it with the de- 
posits, he further found to his greater astonishment 
that every dollar of the deposits was intact. Asked to 
explain this extraordinary condition of things, the old 
man said : 

"That there money's the depositors'. I paid out all 
my own money and hain't got any more. I wan't 
going to be such a rascal as to pay out my depositors' 
money." ' ' ^ 

It appeared that as fast as money was deposited with 
him he tied it up, labeled it with the depositor's name 
and kept it intact in the safe. It is needless to say that 
the bank was not insolvent, but he gave up the bank- 
ing business wheniie was informed how to do it, be- 
cause it "scairt" him to handle other people's money. . 

He was doing a cash business, and had no concep- 
tion of credit business or credit money, and was en- 
tirely unaware of the circulating power of money. He 
was honest to a painful degree. 

Incidentally it may be remarked that our own gov- 



122 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

ernment is honest, strictly honest, as honest in fact as 
Abraham Lincoln or the Kansas farmer-banker, but 
it is a bigoted honesty that stands by while the people 
of the country are starving and the business of the 
country is suffering. It is an honesty that is too good 
for this earth. It is like the bigot who stands beside 
the bedside of a dying man and permits him to die 
without the consolations of religion rather than send 
for a clergyman of another denomination. Physicians 
of one school of medicine will also do that, rather than 
permit one of another school to come in and save the 
patient. 

A case in point of honesty occurred quite recently in 
the city of New York (1898). A man was unjustifiably 
assaulted by the police and sustained injuries that 
proved incurable and rendered him unable to care for 
himself. A clergyman V\^as appointed as his guardian 
and the result of an action brought by him yielded the 
sufferer the sum of five thousand dollars in damages. 
Upon rendering an account of his stewardship, it was 
found that the cripple had left, out of the five thou- 
sand dollars, the sum of $151.95. All of the rest had 
gone in two years for nurses, physicians, lawyers, etc. 
There was no question of dishonesty; on the 'contrary, 
it was honesty on the highest possible plane. The 
nurses, physicians, lawyers and other laborers were 
paid their wage, and the victim was left only enough to 
i3ury himself with. It would not have appeared dis- 
honest to the world if the ''ninety-five cents" of the 
residue had been made an even dollar. If a rascal had 
had charge of this case, it is not going too far to say 
that some of these bills would haA»e been cut down to 
the extent of giving a helpless cripple at least one-half 
of his five thousand dollars. It is well to be honest, 
but common sense is not dishonesty. 

The railroads of this country owe about five thou- 
sand millions of dollars, all of which is represented by 
credit money in the shape of stocks and bonds, the 



MONEY. 123 

government credit money is a drop in the bucket com- 
pared with it. Yet the railroads mostly flourish, and 
they employ and pay a multitude of laborers. Their 
credit money is of a constantly fluctuating value, the 
market for which goes up and dov;n, and makes but 
generally "breaks" those who dabble in it. If, added 
to the railroads, we take sugar, coal, oil, tobacco, bunt- 
ing for our great and glorious flag, and everything 
else all along the line down to milk for unweaned 
babes, the street railway companies that gather in our 
nickels, the Italian and Greek padrone companies that 
monopolize our pushcarts, bootblack and news- 
stands, there does seem to arise an occasion for a 
grand "kick" on the part of the American people, who 
are not politicians nor mem.bers of trusts and syndi- 
cates, because the government does not at least try to 
do something for them. It is not satisfactory that the 
government enact the angelic dodge and refuse to 
come in and tread where the others do not fear to 
rush. 

But it is aot the government that is a myth, a mys- 
terious nonentity. There was a king in France once 
who said: "Je suis I'etat" — I am the State — but they 
either cut off his head or did something disagreeable 
to him for saying it. No, it is not the government, 
and abusing the government accomplishes nothing, it 
is fighting the air. It is the speculators who stand be- 
hind the administration of its affairs and preach 
honesty and morality to it, until the poor old govern- 
ment loses its head and does not know what to do, and 
then, like everybody else, does the wrong thing. It is 
a case of too much honesty, such an extravagant 
honesty, and so loudly proclaimed from the housetops 
and in political platforms that it has become open to 
suspicion. 

It is ventured here, that if every official in the nation ^ 
were to accept bribes, steal, embezzle and do every- 
thing else that the political party "out" says the politi- 



124 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

cal party ''in" does, that the government would still be 
honest if the people are honest. I don't mean the 
politicians and the speculators, for they cannot be hon- 
est or patriotic if they tried, they are afflicted with total 
depravity, but I do mean the people in general, who 
are being perpetually hoodwinked, whose expectations 
are raised to the highest notch and never realized, the 
rank and file of voters who run after the politicians' 
band wagon and hurrah, for prosperity with empty 
stomachs, the Egyptian pyramid builders, the Mexi- 
can tortilla eaters and the rest. They are the ones 
who can prevent the governm.ent from failing or from 
becoming decrepit through over honesty, for they 
have it in their power at any time to turn the rascals 
out. But rascality is a trivial matter compared with 
the grievances of the other seventy-five millions of 
people, less the rascals, who are interested in a finan- 
cial policy that will bring them some returns. It is 
certainly not a foolish idea to imagine that the govern- 
ment can adopt a financial policy that will be as suc- 
cessful as that of a railroad company, or a sugar, coal, 
oil and other trusts. Moreover, it can make its own 
credit m.oney of a fixed value as it always has done, 
and the country would prosper under it as it always 
has prospered. This country was built up to its pres- 
ent height of grandeur on its credit money and the 
people grew fat upon it, and it was only when it was 
taken away "from them and given to the speculators 
that the country began to crawfish and the people lost 
their fat. 

The very article which has always been used for 
speculative purposes — gold — is made the standard, 
the security for the circulating medium, whereas 
the productions of the people, staples, labor, 
silver, are not given a passing thought. The labor of 
a man is worth so much; then he is entitled to that 
much circulating medium. He produces so much; 
then he should have as much circulating medium as 



MONEY. 125 j 

will make the difference between the worth of his labor ; 
and the profits on the products of it. That is the 

quantity of demand and the standard of amount. We ! 

say to a man: "Your money is there and you can have 1 

it if you earn it." We say to the producer: 'There is J 

your money, bring on your products." We say that i 
now, but the trouble is the money is not there. 

There is no wealth but money under our system of ; 

political economy; it is made the only wealth by our \ 

business system. Moreover, mioney is a production j 

like wheat, iron and other products of the soil ex- ; 

tracted by labor, the only difference being the stamp ; 

of the government on the metal of the money, which 1 

gives it a standard value as a medium of exchange, j 

which is not the case with a bushel of wheat, a yard of ; 

silk or a ton of iron, such nomenclature being stand- | 

ards of measure, weight and quantity and never of \ 

exchange value. The effort to compare a dollar with i 

a bushel of wheat, a yard of silk, etc., is to distort the j 

idea of the exchange value of money by forcing things j 

incompatible and inconsistent to become afffnities \ 

where afffnity can never exist. Money is the standard j 

of value fixed by the government upon a medium of j 

exchange used to purchase the other products. j 

Now, money or the material, the gold or silver out of | 

which it is created, being essentially a product of labor, i 

whatever reduces the amount of the production of • 

either gold or silver enhances the value of the money ; 

created out of them and gives money a higher ex- ; 
change value for wheat, etc., and reduces the wages of 
labor in producing wheat, etc. That is, money buys 

more wheat and more labor; wheat is lower and wages 1 

less. It is forcing one product to compete with an- j 
other product, or with all the other products, which 
results disastrously except to the speculators. 

If the government should restrict the production of 
wheat, pianos, boots and shoes, etc., it would un- 
doubtedly have a disastrous effect upon our indus- 



126 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

tries, but it has not only restricted the product of sil- 
ver, but has demonetized it altogether and destroyed 
the labor which produces it, the same as would be 
destroyed labor in producing wheat, pianos, boots and 
shoes, in the event of their restriction or prohibition. 



CHAPTER XV. 

A FINANCIAL PROBLEM. 

There is no reason why a financial poHcy, successful at 

one time, should not be successful at another 

time under the same circumstances. 

Two persons having an equal amount of money or 
an equal quantity of goods, wares and merchandise, 
cannot both make money out of each other. What 
one gains the other loses. This rule is true of any 
number of persons, nay, it is applicable to all of the 
individuals of a nation. It is only when there is an 
increase of the original capital that there is a legiti- 
mate object of commercial pursuit. It is the same 
when the amounts of original capital are dissimilar, the 
proportions must be maintained or there is trickery or 
injustice, not to say robbery. 

It is out of the increase or product of a product 
that spring legitimate business transactions, and, pro- 
vided the original wealth or capital is not undermined, 
diminished or destroyed, there can be no limit to the 
accumulations which every individual is entitled to 
make. 

Assuming a man to have $50,000 in money — 
real money — or its equivalent worth and value in 
goods, wares and merchandise, and he permits in- 
roads to be made into his capital or "start" in busi- 
ness without replacement; soon he will be left without 
anything. The money, the goods, are not lost or de- 
stroyed, some other individual has them. The quan- 
tity of value or worth remains the same unless, as in 

127 



128 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

the case of a total destruction by fire of uninsured 
goods or the absolute loss of coin money by dropping 
it into the sea, for instance. Credit money, such as 
promissory notes, bank bills, etc., cannot be destroyed, 
their apparent destruction being so much gain to their 
creator. The individual who publicly burned ten 
thousand dollars in United States Treasury notes to 
spite the government, added ten thousand dollars to 
the wealth of the government and committed financial 
suicide. Had he thrown into the sea ten thousand 
dollars in gold or silver coin it would have been a dead 
loss and nobody's gain, for, although gold and silver 
coin are not based upon any intrinsic value, they are 
the redemption money of credit money. So it is that 
when an uninsured stock of goods, wares and mer- 
chandise, a thousand bushels of grain,- a thousand 
sheep, etc., are destroyed there is a dead loss and no- 
body's gain, because such products are the basis of 
credit money. The credit money remains, but the 
redemption product thereof being lost, insolvency en- 
sues. 

Following out this line of argument to its legitimate 
conclusion, it is clear that money, either in coin or 
credit money, should equal the amount of the prod- 
ucts that may be exchangeable for either or all. This 
is actually the case in every day transactions. The 
greater part of the business of the country to-day is 
transacted on credit money in the shape of individual 
bills and notes, because there is not sufficient govern- 
ment bills and notes to operate with. Hence it is that 
because the government will not provide a sufficient 
supply of stable currency for a circulating medium, the 
business of the country is driven to engage in an irre- 
sponsible and uncertain personal banking business, as 
bad as the old system of private banking, when the 
credit money issue of private banks varied from par to 
ten cents on a dollar. The financial panic of 1857 is 
within the memory of many now living. It was 



A FINANCIAL PROBLEM. 129 

brought about by permitting credit money issued by 
private banks to be the basis of commercial transac- 
tion on the mistaken supposition that it was cash. In- 
stead of their own bills and notes, people used the bill? 
and notes of private, irresponsible banks, w^hose notes 
of issue were limited only by the speed of a printing 
press engaged in turning them out. These banks 
were swept out of existence because their issue was 
based almost exclusively upon speculative probabil- 
ities, and, to use an American phrase, "You can't bank 
on a probability." 

This was the condition of affairs in 1861, when the 
government was reduced to great straits to pay the ex- 
penses of the War of the Rebellion. The government 
needed money and credit, but there was neither to be 
had, for the reasons above mentioned. Coin had dis- 
appeared, not because the government needed it, for 
there would not have been enough coin in any event 
to pay cash, but because the vicious system of private 
bank credit money had brought about its entire ab- 
sorption by home and foreign speculators. There was 
a wide margin of profit for speculators in seventy-five 
or ninety per centum discount, which was the differ- 
ence between the actual and face value of the then 
credit money. Confronted by its own necessities, the 
government was forced to do, for its own preservation, 
what it should always and may always do for the bene- 
fit of its people^it issued its own credit money, and 
in such enormous quantities that the political econo- 
mists of the world were paralyzed and predicted ruin 
to the American Republic. 

With the issue of government credit money specu- 
lation began again, but the government was saved 
and established upon a higher financial plane than 
ever before. 

To turn aside a moment and ask a pertinent ques- 
tion: If the government by monopolizing an entire, 
enormous issue of credit money, was enabled to save 



130 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

the nation and place the country upon a more exalted 
basis than any other nation in the world, why can it 
not also save the people of the nation and place them 
upon a higher plane of financial prosperity? The 
question is always one of sufficient money. The an- 
swer will appear hereafter. 

But to return to what was intended to be said : The 
inevitable and mysterious ''gold" began to burn in the 
pockets of home and foreign speculators, patriots 
hastened to transform the blood of the people of the 
country into profits. If any person desired gold — 
which was not needed, except for speculation, or to 
gratify his appetite with imported pate de foie gras, he 
was obliged to buy it just as one would buy bread and 
meat (a curious illustration of the idea tliat gold is 
standard money), and at one time the yellow metal 
commanded two dollars and sixty-six cents in Treas- 
ury notes for every alleged dollar in gold. Some said 
that gold had gone up in price — how could it if it is 
standard money and not merchandise like all other 
products of actual money? Others again argued that 
''greenbacks" had gone down in value — how could 
they if government credit money has no value? 

This seemed to be a dreadful condition of affairs. 
The wise men of the earth worried over our future, 
our own learned political economists who had mapped 
out a different policy for the government to pursue, 
one based upon that of a monarchy, shook their heads 
mysteriously and speculated in gol4- But strangely 
enough, and contrary to all precedent, everybody had 
money and also bread and meat. There were no poor 
and a case of hunger or starvation was unknown. 
Everything in the way of circulating medium was in 
paper, from the five-cent scrip up. The cent was too 
small to be considered at all; it was ignored, and if a 
man wanted one apple or five apples he laid down a 
five-cent scrip. Prices increased, became ''inflated," 
as the suffering friends of the poor call it, until flour 



A FINANCIAL PROBLEM. i^i 

stood at sixteen dollars a barrel, sugar at twenty cents 
a pound and other things in proportion. But mark 
this significant fact! Everybody had sixteen dollars 
or the twenty cents to buy flour or sugar with. We 
were living under the French "assignats" system, our 
currency was the old Continental currency, whence 
arose the expression of worthlessness, "Not worth a 
Continental damn," but we were hilarious over it. The 
industries and agricultural interests of the country 
were stimulated to an extraordinary degree; the la- 
borer sang merrilyoverhiswork and the buzz of wheels 
and clang of hammers resounded all over the land. It 
is conceded even by the speculators that the country 
never enjoyed such an era of prosperity, and we be- 
came the wonder of the world. The slaves of other 
nations saw in us an opportunity to get rid of their 
shackles, and they did free themselves by flying to our 
shores. The labor unions of the day were social or- 
ganizations; they were not struggling for bread and 
life then, nor trying to find out why in a country of 
plenty there is neither work nor bread. There was no 
hunger or misery and no suffering except the heart 
pangs of widows and orphans or relatives weeping for 
those who shed their blood in a war the pressing de- 
mands of which FORCED THE GOVERNMENT 
INTO A FINANCIAL POLICY WHICH RE- 
SULTED IN THE GREATEST PROSPERITY 
EVER ENJOYED BY ANY NATION SINCE 
THE WORLD BEGAN TO MOVE. 

But we w^ere getting too fat and the same old canker 
worm began its work. The home and foreign specu- 
lators, who had forced their gold up and the credit 
money of the government down, demanded their 
pound of flesh, and they got it, together with the blood 
of their victim with his moribund body thrown in. 
There was no Portia, no just Judge, it was Shylock 
who was at one and the same time judge, jury and ex- 
ecutioner. 



133 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

A veteran newspaper man whose ideas of political 
economy were limited to the raising of potatoes at a 
cost of two dollars and a half each and milk at a 
higher cost than pommery sec, trumpeted forth the 
cry: "The way to resume is to resume." The high 
moral ground for the government to take in the re- 
sumption of specie payments, as laid down by the 
moralists to be benefited by it, was that the govern- 
ment faith had been pledged and that faith must be 
kept. The exact pound of flesh must be yielded. The 
administrators of the affairs of the government forgot 
that other and prior high moral contract, to wit, the 
contract between the people and the government, they 
even forgot the maxim of its own political platform, 
"The greatest good to the greatest number," and 
wandered away into the darkness and miseries of the 
greatest good to the smallest number. The speculator 
triumphed, the rich becam.e richer and the poor poorer. 
Does any man seek for. proof? Let him look about 
him — Si monumentum quaeris, circumspice. When 
the government's faith had to be kept, and the specu- 
lators' pockets filled with wealth, how loudly was pro- 
claimed the fact that this being a government of the 
people, the morals of the whole people were involved, 
but when it is the people themselves who ask some- 
thing for their benefit it becomes a government of 
some other kind. It does make a difference whose ox 
is gored. 

So it happened that Shylock got his pound of flesh 
out of the nation, and it was so easily done by the 
"moral" argument that he has been carving up the 
corpse of the body politic ever since. We have 
reached the point mxcntioned in the beginning of this 
chapter. The capital of individuals is being eaten into 
and they have no increase. That possibility is de- 
stroyed, as is a whole warehouse of grain by rats who 
might have enough for themselves and to spare for 



A FINANCIAL PROBLEM. 133 

others, but prefer to destroy what they cannot con- 
sume. 

*'One day a dog with a piece of meat in his mouth 
crossing a brook of clear water saw his reflection in 
the Hmpid stream. Thinking it another dog that had 
something, his cupidity persuaded him to acquire it. 
Wherefore, dropping the meat which he had, he at- 
tempted to snatch the other." 

''A farmer, after swinging his scythe all day in the 
grain field, was on his way home with his scythe over 
his shoulder. Crossing a clear stream on a narrow 
bridge, he espied a large fish apparently asleep and 
within his reach. Thinking only of what a nice din- 
ner the fish would make, he gently raised his scythe 
as high as he could so as to give more force to his 
blow, intending to kill the fish with the end of the 
handle. In turning and twisting about to get a good 
aim, it so happened that he brought the sharp blade of 
the scythe across the back of his extended neck. With 
all his strength he brought the scythe handle down. 
The fish merely moved out of the way and went to 
sleep again, but the farmer. . . . " 

^'Verbum sapientiae sufficit." 



CHAPTER XVI. : 

LABOR. 1 

i 

An insight into the nature of labor and some facts | 
connected with its character as a scapegoat. ; 

The labor problem is the most exasperating one of : 
modern times; exasperating because it is so compli- j 
cated and apparently so impossible of solution. i 

Labor in general is here referred to because there I 
is no reason for disputing the theory that he who uses \ 
his brains as a bread-winner and not for speculation is ^ 
as much of a laborer as he who employs muscle only, j 

It is useless to claim as a practical principle of polit- i 
ical economy that wealth is the product of labor, for ; 
labor possesses no known method of enforcing such \ 
claim against wealth, it being a mythical claim, like the \ 
damnum absque injuria in law; that is to say, a wrong \ 
without a remedy, or a claim barred by the Statute of : 
Limitations — a moral obligation, but no legal means ■ 
of enforcing it. i 

It is a fact, however, that labor produces wealth or : 
money, which is capital, although when capital has i 
been once accumulated and no longer in the hands of ; 
labor, it ceases its connection with labor, becoming in- ; 
dependent capital, or a free product, which may com- ; 
mand labor. A curious outcome of the visionary the- | 
ories of dreamers, in that the creature has become the i 
creator, ; 

Ah things have conspired within the past twenty- \ 
five years to set at naught or overturn supposedly fixed 1 
principles which were established for the regulation of I 

134 i 



LABOR. 135 

men in their relations with one another, notably so in 
the matter of labor. The advent of so-called "Female 
Emancipation" has crowded out of employment a mul- 
titude of able bodied men, deprived them of occupa- 
tions they were fitted for, and in which they were able 
to earn a compensation sufficient to enable them to 
perform the social duty of marrying, and obey the 
divine command to increase and multiply, and their 
places filled by women at low wages. To such an ex- 
tent, indeed, that the sentimentalists who brought 
about the culmination of Female Emancipation are 
seriously advocating compulsory laws in relation to 
marriage because men are not inclined to marry. 
Chinese and other contract and pauper labor, per- 
mitted under our treaties with foreign nations, in de- 
spite of the welfare of our own citizens, including the 
Italian padrone system, have added their quota to the 
distressing burden which labor is compelled to shoul- 
der. Add to these also prison labor, sweat shops, 
labor saving machinery, and the consumption of about 
one thousand millions of dollars' worth of imported 
goods, wares and merchandise created by the cheap 
labor of foreign nations per annum, and labor is very 
close to the alternative of crime or pauperism. 

In the so-called learned professions, the law and 
medicine, the same condition of things is observable. 
With politicians forming a syndicate that offers an 
unsurmountable barrier to the rank and file, any kind 
of a lawyer will do the business, for it is not law but 
"puU" that is required. In fact, there are only a few 
lawyers who may hope for anything but the slimmest 
returns for their legal education. It is fraud, chican- 
ery, trickery; the defrauding of creditors, the robbery 
of widows and orphans; it is the shyster and pettifog- 
ger who browbeats the man of honesty and learning, 
and easy-going, facile, political judges look on and 
laugh, while a servile press puffs up the charlatan and 



136 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

mountebank and denounces the man of steady habits 
as. too slow for this age. 

In the medical profession, hedged about and ham- 
pered by professional termagant nurses, there exists 
the same necessity for ''pull' as in the case of the law- 
yer. Cabals of medical societies bar the doors against 
Hippocrates and Galen, and get no further in the 
science of medicine and surgery than the discovery 
of microbes of inoffensive parentage, and the removal 
of a patient's vermicular appendix. 

Indeed, every occupation is run by a ring, and those 
outside of it are the Lazaruses who gather crumbs that 
fall from Dives' table. 

Writers and authors should not be omitted from the 
category of labor, for they, more than any other labor- 
ers, are at the mercy of others. Their destiny is in a 
bad way, for their toil is not of any fixed value and 
does not receive any certain compensation. A man 
who digs a ditch receives his pay at once whether the 
ditch is immediately serviceable or not, and the 
butcher who sells meat does not have to wait for the 
price of it until it has proved acceptable to the pur- 
chaser. But the author's screeds are accepted and he 
lives on 'Svind" until the same are published. Certain 
cliques and rings determine who shall or shall not re- 
ceive compensation for their labor, and syndicates 
prevent an American author from gaining any prestige 
or renown by the suppression of his authorship; they 
have even grown so bold that they determine who shall 
or shall not succeed in the business of book publishing. 
It is the universal rule that unless it be an English, 
Scotch, French, Russian, Norwegian, Dutch or any 
other but an American name, "We do not care for the 
m.anuscripts of unknown authors," as if an author 
could become known unless his manuscripts are ac- 
cepted. No, this is a mistake, notoriety is open to him 
in the advertising columns of newspapers at regular 
advertising rates. 



LABOR. 137 

Theology, as^ a profession, Is not Included In the 
category of labor, for although compensated, that 
compensation is charitable, and received in the shape 
of donations, tithes and contributions; as well include 
the tax collector under the head of "labor." Labor, 
properly speaking, does not ask charity, it demands 
work. 

History does not furnish us with the details of the 
practical working of the system of political economy in 
vogue among the ancient Egyptians, but we suspect 
that the builders of the Pyramids, that is the toilers, 
were slaves, their wage sm.all and their food insuffi- 
cient from our modern point of view. It mattered lit- 
tle to their taskmasters whether they lived or died, 
there were always others to supply any deficiency. It 
is probable that the slave class constituted the bulk 
of the population, and from them were drawn the 
soldiery, a slight elevation of condition, but there their 
progress began and ended. We read about their kings 
and harlots, just as at some future period of the 
world's history Macaulay's citizen of New Zealand 
will read about our prominent politicians and lives of 
illustrious men and women published at fifty dollars 
each in Turkey morocco bound books, but we do not 
read about any particular struggles made by the Egyp- 
tian slaves to free themselves; perhaps they did not 
think of revolting, or did not express any universal 
dissatisfaction, nor can we tell wdiether they would 
have succeeded if they had turned on their oppressors. 
We assume that they were satisfied, for we have 
their parallel at this end of the century in the people 
of an adjoining republic. 

In Mexico the native Mexican, that Is the descend- 
ants of the Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayas and what not, are 
satisfied with twenty-five cents per day In Mexican 
silver, which are equal to twelve and one-half cents 
American money. They are not worth much more 
than that, and the question of humanity Is not an ele- 



138 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. ] 

ment in the modern system of political economy re- | 
garding labor. They live, however, and grow fat, j 
moreover they perpetuate other slaves pursuant to 1 
the divine command, and urged thereto by social laws I 
and customs to make more cheap labor. They thrive ; 
on their wage, for their wants are few and simple, their : 
bill of fare is invariably the same daily, as it was when 'i 
Cortes dealt them out rations as a conquered people, j 
to wit: tortillas, beans, and occasionally, on feast days, i 
chili con carne. ; 

They all save money out of their wages, and either | 
bury it or gamble it away. No man ever saw a Mexi- i 
can Indian whose pockets did not jingle with coin. ) 
They do not worry about financial questions and do i 
not meddle with the affairs of government, all that is , 
attended to for them by the politicians just the same j 
as our afifairs are managed by our politicians, although I 
we still make a few feeble objections. \ 

These two extremes, the one of remote antiquity, ] 
the other of modern times in a neighboring republic, j 
are referred to, to the exclusion of all other conditions ; 
that have ever existed or that now exist, for the pur- I 
pose of showing that it is not only the system of gov- i 
ernment, but also the submission of the individuals to [ 
lowly habits, that creates those conditions. To refer j 
to other nations would involve an inquiry into the cir- ; 
cumstances surrounding existing conditions, which j 
are totally different from and adverse to our own cir- j 
cumstances, and therefore inapplicable to the United 
States, in which some very wise and shrewd statesmen 
have repeatedly said there is coming the naked ques- 
tion of work or starve. 

As was said in another chapter, the totally different 
circumstances and conditions surrounding the Amer- 
ican citizen, his ability to find means of obtaining 
bread, and his equal facilities for acquiring wealth, or 
money, or remaining in abject poverty, demand a new 

i 



LABOR. 139 

and different system of political economy than would 
be suitable for any other country. 

There is no system of political economy that was 
ever suggested, no measure ever broached for the re- 
lief of mankind that was, is, or ever can be capable of 
universal application, because the various nations of 
the earth are governed by different and antagonistic 
systems. It is the government of every country that 
fixes its political economy and makes its rules and 
principles fit the administration of its own affairs and 
not the affairs of any other country. To attempt to 
adjust them upon some universal standard of appli- 
cation is a labor of folly. As well ask the nations of 
the earth to change their form of government and fall 
in with the sentimental ideas of visionaries. 

We are, however, attempting to fit foreign condi- 
tions to our own system, and even the labor unions 
listen to the Sirens of foreign unions, with the result 
that failure has more or less attended their efforts as a 
natural consequence. The sensation of hunger is 
identically the same in the United States as it is in 
England, Armenia or Cuba, but that effect is produced 
by different causes, and the means and opportunities 
of preventing it or of entirely obviating it are more 
plentiful here than there, so what good can their sys- 
tems accomplish? We are advancing, not retreating. 
If we were to throw overboard all of these foreign in- 
terlopers, who know nothing about the great principles 
that underlie our system of government, and seek an 
explanation here of the reasons why the cause of labor 
has not practically advanced, and why the conflict be- 
tween labor and capital is as bitter as it ever has been, 
there might be some progress made and the strife be- 
tween capital and labor become less bitter, and the 
rough, angular edges which prevent fraternizing 
smoothed away. 

The delegate from England, Germany, Russia, 
France, South Africa or Timbuctoo mav talk to us 



140 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

until he is speechless without being able to give us any 
valuable information or practical ideas or advice. He 
does not know our system, but we know his, for our 
system is inclusive, whereas his is exclusive. In the 
United States WE are the people, indeed; to them 
in England or elsewhere, they are the three drunken 
tailors of Tooley Street, who issued a proclamation 
beginning: "We, the people of England." With us 
it is fact; with them, absurdity. 

It is well for a man to know the enemies of his own 
household, for that knowledge will enable him to 
take the proper measure to insure a quite and peace- 
able dominion, if not by persuasion, then by driving 
out the disturbers. It is on that account that so many 
evils have been pointed out in this book, not by way 
ot blemishes in our system, for there are none, but as 
preparatory to curing them. A backslider from 
Christianity does not mar the purity of the founder of 
Christianity, or condemn religion. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

LABOR. 
(Continued.) 

The connection between Labor and Money; how that 
connection is severed and the conse- 
quences thereof. 

There never existed a dollar of money that made 
itself. It is the product of labor, and does not grow 
spontaneously like trees and plants. Even in the lat- 
ter case all consumable things come from. labor; the 
sowing of the seed, the harvesting of crops and the 
gathering of fruits. Men are not fed as was the 
prophet Elijah, by the birds. Labor makes the powder 
and shot with which to kill the birds it eats, and Elijah 
is the capitalist and millionaire fed by the bird of 
labor that is killed with its own powder and shot. 

When a man is "making" money, as the saying 
goes, he is either earning it by the labor of his own 
hands, employing labor to gain it for them, speculating 
and scheming to get it away from others without earn- 
ing it, runs a charity organization which begs it, or is 
in the business of embezzlement. 

Speculating is done by means of coin, credit money 
or its equivalent, and it is from speculation that enor- 
mous fortunes are made suddenly. Under our system, 
as it is now administered, labor can not acquire wealth 
or even a competence. It must leave the workbench 
and the spade and pick and turn speculator to enjoy 
the blessings of our present financial policy. 

141 



142 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

The amount of money deposited in the savings 
banks of this country is estimated at about two thou- 
sand milHons of dollars, the great majority of which 
belongs to labor, widows and orphans, and other de- 
pendent people. This fact is proudly pointed at, and 
loudly shouted from the housetops as an undeniable 
answer to ''calamity howlers." "We are a thrifty peo- 
ple; nobody need suffer want; we are enjoying an era 
of great prosperity; we are progressing with giant j 
strides," and other claptrap. The reader will find all 
these oratorical evidences of satiety in political plat- 
forms, speeches, and essays of highly fed arid salaried 
clergymen and people who live down a deep well, and 
therefore do not see the sunlight. But when he turns 
away from oratory and buncombe and takes a walk 
through the streets of any of our cities, or attends a 
meeting of our labor unions, he does not find that 
sleek fatness the wind of words indicates. When he ■ 
does find financial obesity, that exudes dollars and 
doughnuts from every pore, it is in the luxurious 
apartments of the capitalists and the so-called million- 
aire. There is where the prosperity is, and there is 
where it remains. On the one side plethoric rotundity, 
on the other a bag of poverty-stricken bones. 

How does it happen that with two thousand mil- 
lions of dollars in the savings banks, presumably the 
money of the laborer, of the poor and of the widow and 
orphan — for capitalists and millionaires do not deposit 
their savings in the alleged banks of the poor — that 
the owner of it must wearily tramp our streets and 
frequently commits suicide in despair of getting it? 
Why does the guardian possess a double chin and 
"belly with fat capon lined," while his ward must 
scrimp along at a fifteen-cent restaurant, or gather food 
from our garbage barrels? 

The reason is not far to find. The money is not 
there, it is in the hands of the capitalists, millionaires 
and speculators. Of a truth, and in the nature of 



LABOR. 143 

things, it can not and could not be there. In the first 
place, there is not money enough or bank notes in the 
country to reach that amount, and in the second place, 
if there were enough, and it should be locked up, it 
would bankrupt the entire nation and not leave enough 
circulating medium to buy powder and shot ior the 
capitalist, millionaire and speculator to blow their 
brains out with. It is all borrowed, and individual 
credit money deposited as security for the credit 
money of the government. Think of the financial 
policy that makes a man's promissory note good se- 
curity for a government note. 

It is the story of the ham mentioned in the second 
chapter on ''Money," but in this case the capitalists 
and the others not only get the one ham, but all the 
hams, and keep them, selling them back to the pro- 
ducer at a high price, or a high rate of interest. The 
producer becomes the consumer of his own products, 
and thus the laborer may be said to be "eating off his 
own head." 

The money that labor has scrimped to save and put 
away in a bank for a rainy day is borrowed by the cap- 
italists and others, who kindly allow part of it to drib- 
ble back again into the hands of the producers, pro- 
vided they pay a high rate of interest for the inestim- 
able privilege of using some of their own money. 

If it were possible for all of the depositors of sav- 
ings banks, and other banks for that matter, to simul- 
taneously demand their money — they are prevented 
by law from so doing, for it v/ould ruin the bankers, 
capitahsts, millionaires and speculators if the people 
once got possession of their money, and the case must 
necessarily be, therefore, a supposititious one — they 
would get only a small percentage of their money if 
they got any at all, because it would not be there, and 
because the individual credit money left in its place as 
security for its return is practically worthless, it is 
what a poker sharp would call ''bluff." It would be in 



144 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

the hands of capitaHsts, bankers, brokers, millionaires, 
the lah-de-dah element, the American citizens who buy 
a thousand million of dollars' worth of foreign, cheap 
labor pates de foie gras; who smuggle diamonds and 
laces through our custom house ; who expend two and 
a half millions of dollars of it in luxurious palaces and 
grounds and get them assessed at three hundred thou- 
sand dollars; who, when it is too warm for their deli- 
cate skins in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco 
or elsewhere, hie away in their elegantly equipped 
yachts for foreign climes, with their sisters and their 
cousins and their aunts, or with those belonging to 
someone else; who swim in champagne and indecency 
in public restaurants; who buy their places in legisla- 
tive bodies; who send pantaloons and flannel shirts to 
the sweating tribes of the South Sea Islands, frying 
pans to the Cubans, wheelbarrows to the Africans 
and their kind regards to the Armenians and Siberian 
exiles. All of it is your money, good neighbor, the 
product of your labor, of your sweat, and of your 
aching bones. You will find somewhere in the above 
schedule, which may be enlarged ad infinitum, several 
reasons why you do not and cannot get your money 
back again, and you will be able to make a staggering 
guess that the additions you make to your deposits 
come out of the increase of your own money, which 
you earn over and over again, but derive no benefit 
from. That is why you do not get rich, neighbor, and 
it is why the capitalists and the other fellows do. You 
do not even reach a competency, or a sufficiency for a i 
rainy day. Here is the reason of that also: i 

If your poor little bankbook shows enough to make j 
it worth while to get it away from you, enough drops i 
of sweat — beg pardon — money, to make a small buck- i 
etful, the idea will come to you to procure a home. ; 
The idea is not original with you, it began in the j 
Garden of Eden, and it is called "The Temptation and j 
Fall." You have not enough money to buy a home i 



LABOR. 145 

outright, so you must run in debt. It does not occur 
to you that a financial system that will not enable you 
to earn enough money to avoid running in debt at 
one time will not enable you to get enough money to 
pay that debt at another time. So you listen to the voice 
of the charmer, who is willing to take what you have 
got and wait for the balance secured by a mortgage 
on your future sweat and blood and bones. The same 
gentleman who appeared to Mother Eve in the Garden 
whispers in your ear that you ought to have a home 
all your own and save rent. A grand idea that, "to save 
rent," and you save it by paying in interest -on your 
loan more than your rent would come to. Your 
friend above mentioned has just the home you need, 
a nice, cunning little hom.e, got it by accident at a 
sacrifice. Your wife, who knows no more about the 
wiles of the serpent that did her predecessor, Eve, is 
delighted with the nice vines running all over the 
front porch — they cost about twenty-five cents in bulbs 
and seeds, and then did their own growing without 
further expense to the ov^aier. Time is of no conse- 
quence, take' your own time about paying, long time 
on deferred payments are preferred because you do 
not feel the vivisection so miuch. 

You are now put in the mill, on the nether millstone, 
and the upper stone laid on you gently at first. You 
prefer a banker to a Building Association, because you 
can see for yourself that in those beneficent institu- 
tions a man makes money by not borrowing it and 
loses it by borrowing, besides being saddled with a 
mortgage. To the banker, therefore. It happens to be 
hard times, so he says, and you have no other way 
of finding out, and he cannot spare any money just 
now. This means, to a man up a tree, that he has the 
money, but cannot make enough out of it if he lends 
it, it would be unlawful. But he gives you the address 
of a broker — all banks have their brokers for the pur- 
pose — which broker he thinks, but is not sure, may 



146 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

have some money to lend. To the broker, therefore. 
This gentleman, for some inscrutable reason, is always 
blessed with a very prominent nose, and talks to you 
as if you were trying to cheat him in a second-hand 
clothes deal. Money is tight — slways the case when 
it comes to borrow it, moreover it is very scarce — but 
you can have a "leetle" at a large discount and if you 
are wilhng to pay his commissions for the great trouble 
he will be put to to get it. You ape bound to have a 
home or ''burst," so you fall in, drink in everything 
like an innocent babe. The broker puts on his hat, 
goes around the corner to the same bank you just 
left, gets the money without any security, for he is in 
the secret employ of the bank, and after you have ex- 
pended about half of your savings in commissions, dis- 
count, advance interest, deed, mortgage, fees for 
searching records and lawyer's fees with notary's fees, 
you get the money. No, you don't get the money, 
you can't be trusted with it, you might run away or 
spend it for the necessaries of life. You get a build- 
ing contract, under which the money is paid out to the 
contractor recommended by the broker, as your home 
goes up. You do not get enough to buy your wife an 
ice cream soda, the baby a pair of new shoes, or your- 
self a "stogie," but you are progressing in the direction 
of a home, which, unknown to you, for you are not 
blessed with prophetic vision, means the Alms House, 
for there is the foreclosure sure to come. You are in 
the hands and at the mercy of our great financial sys- 
tem. You do not understand why you are foreclosed 
and thrown out, and you change your politics, voting 
for some other party than the last one you voted for, 
but you do not get your home back, the juggernaut of 
American finance rolls along, crushing out the breath, 
blood and bones of its victims without cessation. 

Reader, do not imagine this to be always the case. 
It is common though, too common. It is like the lot- 
tery business, which allows some to draw prizes to 



LABOR. 147 

encourage the others to come in, but the prizes are 
paid out of your own money, the projectors not having 

I any of their own, for the very good reason that they 
are not laborers, and, therefore, have not earned any. 
[i It is always the money produced by labor that is used 
I for speculation, as it is the money of other people that 
i makes bankers rich. 

The people who bury their money because they are 
afraid to trust it to banks are not very much out of 
the way of the truth. What they lose by burglary and 
mice is insignificant compared with the amount they 
lose through banks, brokers and speculators. What 
a curious spectacle, laws intended for the benefi.t of 
the people operating to their detriment! There is not 
very much mutuality in the protection afforded the 
dear people. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

LABOR. 
(Continued.) 

Herein many things it would be well for Labor to 
omit. Labor should look up, not down. 

''The laborer is worthy of his hire." 

''The destruction of the poor is their poverty." 

The evils that have befallen the man whose labor 
brings him sustenance, instead of being mitigated, 
have gone on increasing of late years, until it is safe 
to say that the lot of the laborer is more deplorable 
than ever, and no one seems able to alleviate his con- 
dition or suggest a suitable remedy to cure its miseries. 

Not that remedies are lacking, for the laborer may 
be likened to a sick man requiring medical assistance. 
His physicians are legion and the remedies proposed 
by them as infallible cures are as diverse as they are 
multitudinous, and the more numerous the more 
pitiable the condition of the patient. Hence it may 
be conjectured with truth that the patient having been 
brought to a moribund condition by too many physi- 
cians and remedies, he is merely a subject of experi- 
ment for quacks, who are ignorant of the nature of 
their own remedies and unacquainted with the consti- 
tution of their patient, or rather victim. 

Or it may be assumed by way of illustration that the 

laborer is a penitent sinner, seeking that greatest of 

all goods and highest of all human aims, the salvation 

of his soul. He seeks the counsel and advice of a 

148 



LABOR. 149 

variety of apostles and prophets, many of whom in- 
deed thrust themselves upon him under the specious 
plea of pure benevolence. But instead of having his 
doubts removed or finding relief from the consuming 
fire of remorse, the twin companion of repentance, he 
falls into despair, through too much diversity of opin- 
ion and sheer inability to reconcile them. Moreover, 
his doubts concerning his ultimate abiding place in the 
nether world are increased. He discovers the various 
dogmatic opinions to be, or he would so discover them 
to be if he used a modicum of reason and common 
sense, all shifting ideas of apostate apostles and false 
prophets; the blind leading the blind, and all falling 
into the same ditch of muddled intellects, emasculated 
common sense and self-interest. 

The reason is plain. The labor question has been 
evolved into a general system, and like all other sys- 
tems in which the cause of the individual is lost in that 
of an aggregation acting in a corporate capacity, it 
stands in need of a radical revolution to purify it from 
its tyranny and from the unyielding dogmas upon 
which it is based. As in the case of the poor, "their 
poverty is their destruction," so it is that the destruc- 
tion of the laborer is in his labor elevated into a dogma 
upon the ideas and under the manipulations of his 
leaders by whatever name they may be designated, 
whether "Trades Unions," "Federations of Labor," 
"Knights of Labor" or other meaningless nomen- 
clature. 

During about sixteen years of persistent struggle to 
ameliorate their condition under the auspices of the 
Trades Unions and other leaders, the rank and file of 
laborers in the United States, in bread for themselves 
and families, have expended the very pretty sum of 
$190,493,382 in strikes and lockouts, with only a loss 
to their employers of $94,825,837. A net gain to the 
employers of $95,667,545, whereas the laborers have 
thrown away the sum total without any gain. Add 



150 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

to this princely sum the costs and expenses of about 
twelve thousand unions with an army of officials, 
walking delegates, boycotters, helpers, arguers, pa- 
trolmen, etc., etc., none of whom are apostles, moral- 
izers, theorizers or liberators except for hire, together 
with the sums paid for the initiation of a million or 
so of members, their monthly dues, contributions, 
traveling expenses of numberless delegates to number- 
less conventions, etc., etc., and the sum total is so 
appalling that anybody not a member of a labor union 
hypnotized by his "Grand Worthy" this and "Most 
Serene" that and the other thing, would stand aghast 
at the concentrated systematic folly of continuing it 
and recall that old saying, "A fool and his money 
soon parted," as well as consider the slavery of capital 
a blessed relief. 

Nor is this the end of the financial dysentery that is 
gradually and surely killing the patient. It is true 
that certain results have been attained and these are 
pointed at with pride as so beneficial as to be well 
worth the sacrifices that have been made. But, are 
they? With the vast amount of political "pull" lav- 
ished upon legislative bodies whose members had no 
other recourse but to enact certain laws or suffer politi- 
cal ostracism, the suffering workingman was still fur- 
ther assisted along the road of eventual impoverish- 
ment in a variety of hidden ways. Have the almost 
universal "Eight hour" laws, "Child and female 
labor" laws, the repeal and abolition of the "Appren- 
tice" system and various other pretended benefits ac- 
complished anything but loss in wages? Are not all 
of them based upon the same foundation of bat-like 
stupidity? What has the vast army of laborers not 
lost by a reduction of the hours of labor? It has cer- 
tainly cut off one-fifth of its aggregate wage, which to 
a million of men means a good round sum, which the 
most inflated plutocrat would not see his way clear to 
do. There have been many conflicts to compel the 



LABOR. 151 

payment of ten hours' wages for eight hours' work, 
but the victory has always and will always be gained 
by those who refuse to pay for what they do not get, 
and there is no legislature in the land who would dare 
enact such a law — it could not. And so one might go 
on all along the line and point out the fact that not 
only has the cause of labor not been benefited by legis- 
lative action, but has suffered detriment and loss. 
Whatever benefit has accrued has gone into the 
pockets of a multitude who would starve at any occu- 
pation in which they were compelled to labor, and 
these have reaped emoluments beyond their wildest 
dreams and which have hitherto been supposed to be 
the exclusive prerogatives of princes of the royal 
blood and plutocrats, and this they have accomplished 
by transforming the labor question into a system of 
which they are the managers. The laborer is cer- 
tainly a weh and easily plucked victim. So easily in- 
deed is he gulled and hoodwinked that it is almost a 
crime to do it, and were it not for his anxious willing- 
ness to be plucked, it would be highway robbery. It 
is the element of free will that takes the whole matter 
out of anybody's business, which would probably be 
the result if the laborer did not so spasmodically dis- 
turb the peace and serenity of others with his loud 
complaints in petty matters. 

No, the accepted agitation of the labor question has 
not bettered the condition of the workingman by erect- 
ing his cause into a system without a policy, any more 
than prohibition has decreased the manufacture and 
consumption of whiskey and beer; reformed politics 
destroyed a scintilla of corruption; the Sunday laws in- 
creased the pious observance of the first day of the 
week or added to church membership, or the loud out- 
cry against sin from malignant pulpits purified morals 
or closed the gates of Hades. None of them have ever 
or will ever succeed in bettering human conditions 
or making them purer, but have always and wiU al- 



152 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

ways make them worse and more deplorable. The 
same results have followed the attempted forcible so- 
lutions of the labor question through the quackery 
displayed in the treatment of it. It is because none 
of them are based upon the proper foundation of rea- 
son, common sense and the inalienable rights of man. 
They split upon the same rock as all laws and sys- 
tems seeking to enforce sumptuary laws and com- 
pelling morality, purity and honesty. They are 
sought to be made the rule of conduct; to override 
conscience and contracts, and so they bring nothing 
but penury, want, poverty and starvation. 

Is not the cause of labor just, and is not the re- 
demption of the laborer from the shackles of slavery 
and the salvation of his family from the pangs of hun- 
ger an honorable and meritorious object? None more 
just or more meritorious, that is true. But it is easy 
to justify the application of a wrong remedy by the 
statement of a true proposition. It may be stated as 
coming from the lips of every Christian clergyman that 
whoso dieth not in the Christian faith shall be damned, 
therefore to convert him to the way of salvation his 
property must be confiscated, . he must be racked, 
boiled in a cauldron of pitch, broiled on a gridiron, 
stoned and otherwise induced to save his immortal 
soul. These things have all been done to demonstrate 
the necessity of the soul's salvation, and are being 
done to-day, not so openly as heretofore, but quite as 
effectively, for it is what always comes from systematic 
bigotry and fanaticism of any kind, whether it be 
called religion or the labor question. 

You are not required or asked to starve, man! You 
are required to act up to the lights and energies within 
you, and you are also required and bound to permit 
every other man to do the same without your inter- 
ference. Your cause is right; your manifold griev- 
ances demand redress and they would have been 
remedied were it not for your system. Here is an 



LABOR. 153 

illustration which will be understood w4th a little cool 
and careful thought: 

Mr. John Doe is an iron worker worth three dollars 
a day. Being a single man, his wages supply his or- 
dinary wants with a few dollars over to put in some 
savings bank against a rainy day; withal he is a tem- 
perate man. The law permits him and society and 
religion urges him to marry, which, of course, he does, 
a proceeding which divides his wages into halves, and 
he then becomes a dollar and a half man, having^ y 
double expense. Some landlord gets more rent; a 
grocer, a new customer, and the dry goods trade has 
increased. John becomes pinched and wants more 
wages, but does not receive any increase; he is worth 
three dollars and no more and to give him more would 
be going into charity and not business; moreover, he is 
a worker and not a beggar. It should have been 
stated that when our friend Doe was married his sav- 
ings were exhausted in paying a fee to some magis- 
trate or clergyman for performing the ceremony and 
entertaining the respective friends of the bride and 
groom, because it would have been mean not to do 
so on such a joyous occasion. By and by comes the 
first born, introducing a physician, medicine, nurse, 
and, perhaps, a girl to do the housework. Doe him- 
self may lay off a day or two to take care of his wife; 
if he does he pays just three dollars per day for the 
privilege. If Doe and his wife are Christians the lit- 
tle one has a christening to the further increase of 
some clergyman's systematic emoluments, and for the 
benefit of mutual friends at the christening. John's 
savings being gone, he borrows from the future. Hi 
has now become a dollar a day man ; his clothes show 
wear and appear a trifle shabby; he is also run down 
at the heels. He does not look up at the sun with his 
old pride of strength, for his burden drags his shoul- 
ders down. Still, he continues to plod along, and, ac- 
cording to the requirements of society and the re- 



154 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

ligious instructions of pious people, adds another little 
waif to his family circle, and still others, bringing in 
more doctors, more medicine, more everything but 
wages. John becomes desperate and demands higher 
wages on the ground that he cannot support his fam- 
ily on the usual three dollars, but his employer refuses. 

*'No, John," says the boss, ''you are only worth 
three dollars a day. I am not to blame if you had so 
little sense as to go and get married instead of remain- 
ing single. You have taken the burden upon your- 
self and now you want me to help you bear it. No, go 
to your advisers in the matter." 

This reasoning seems conclusive to John, who 
makes up his mind that he was a fool, but as there is 
no help for it he must bear the burden like an honest 
man. He meets a walking delegate and is surprised 
to learn from him that his old employer is a heartless 
tyrant because he will not pay the wages of four for 
the earnings of one, no matter who's to blame. 

"1 tell you," says the walking delegate, "wages must 
be in accordance with the needs of every man; that's 
what his labor's worth. The law and society force you 
to marry, and religion says you must multiply. It 
would be a pretty state of things, now, wouldn't it, if 
a man has to be punished or permitted to starve for 
doing what the law and the Almighty says he must do? 
See here, my boy, you must join the union or you 
won't hold the job you've got much longer; there's 
them that want it bad enough. I'll propose your name 
and you'll only have to pay twenty-five dollars initia- 
tion fee and your monthly dues and occasional con- 
tributions to pay expenses and to help out the boys 
not working. You'll be all right, the union will fix 
you." 

And it does fix him. Instead of buying bread he 
pays his money into the union, which seems to have an 
army of men out of work, to whom his contributions 
go towards supporting. 



LABOR. 155 

John tells his story to the union and it raises a storm 
of indignation. "What!" they all exclaim, "pay a man 
only three dollars and him with a family on his hands!" 

As a matter of principle a strike is ordered and for 
several months John does not get any wages at all, but 
as a substitute the union allows him five dollars a 
week. To eke out a living his wife, never very strong, 
takes in plain sewing or washes out. The children 
neglected, poorly fed and clad, are taken sick and die, 
but are buried with great pomp by the union in full 
regalia, but the children remain dead. Overwork 
sends the wife to the hospital a confirmed invalid, 
while John takes to drink. So our friend has gone 
back to the same point he started from years ago with 
the difference that he has killed three children, ruined 
one woman and increased by one the vast army of 
drunkards. It never occurs to him that he may have 
been to blame in the slightest degree, or that his wife 
and children could have starved to death more com^- 
fortably on three dollars a day than on nothing. 
When maudlin drunk he weeps and wonders who's to 
blame. 

Labor is fighting windmills instead of shutting ofif 
the power that keeps the sails in motion ready to un- 
horse it; it is following the methods of the Prohibition 
party which attacks the poor saloon man and leaves 
the rich distiller to flood the land with rot gut; it is 
worrying at the spigot without noticing the wide open 
bung. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

LABOR. 
(Concluded.) 

What will happen if Labor would act instead of talk. 

I believe that the future welfare of this nation lies 
in the proper, speedy solution of the labor question, 
and that labor itself is the only power able and compe- 
tent to solve it. Without its aid we are following along 
the same lines that all other nations have followed, by 
the following of which the greatest and most powerful 
of them have sunk beneath the sands of time and dis- 
appeared, leaving behind them nothing but a horrid 
memory, a nightmare. The old ideas of government 
are effete, dead, and the living ideals are to be found 
only in the United States. From the beginning labor 
has been looked upon as a mere stepping stone to 
wealth and power, and upon the back of prostrate 
labor have walked the great of the earth, lash in hand, 
to keep it prostrate. 

It does not require any learned disquisition from the 
pen of a political economist to tell us that labor is 
feared, not because it is the producer of wealth, but 
because the conscience of men pricks them with the 
knowledge that when labor shall understand its true 
position and power, it will take its proper place as the 
creator of wealth and compel wealth to descend from 
its usurped throne. It is a case of usurpation; the 
creature, wealth, has taken upon itself the role of the 
producer, its creator, and not until the situation shall 
is6 



LABOR. 157 

have been reversed can there be any settlement of the 
question. 

It is because of the false position assumed by wealth, 
its usurpation of the functions of labor, that it is com- 
pelled to maintain that position by force, calling to its 
aid a false system of education which engenders pre- 
judice and establishes false and deceptive theories as 
infallible dogmas. Learned dreamers and pseudo 
scientists are seduced away from the living question by 
flattery, or by the alluring baits held out to them by 
wealth, and tempted, they fall back, after a few feeble 
struggles, into the old ruts that have never led to the 
least possible good, but the following of which has 
brought ruin and desolation upon the most powerful 
nations, and is breeding decay in those still surviving. 
The germ of decadence need not find congenial soil 
in this country, for it is the only nation where the con- 
ditions wdiich surround the labor question are favor- 
able for a final solution. And it is the first time in the 
history of the world when labor has had opportunities 
to solve its own problems. It has always been the 
master who made terms with his servants, now there 
are no servants. 

The hands of labor are not paralyzed in this coun- 
try, for here a working man may hold up his head and 
look squarely at the sun. If he looks down, and his 
glance is furtive and he shambles along with the gait 
of a peon, it is because he feels still clinging to him the 
dead and useless barnacles of the effete, decaying sys- 
tems of the old world. All these were stricken from his 
limbs when the tocsin of Liberty and Independence 
sounded upon "Liberty Bell," but the shadow of the 
burden which paralyzed the limbs of his predecessors 
still haunts him; he cannot realize the fact that he is 
free, and he fears to move lest the old lash come 
down upon his back to tell him that his freedom is a 
myth. 

There need be no apotheosis of labor, there can be 



158 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

none here, for the rights of labor are not superior to 
all other equal rights, but its equal rights must be 
maintained. There is life in maintaining the equilib- 
rium, death in its disturbance. That is why there are 
paupers, poverty and starvation. Capital has thrown 
our social relations out of balance and labor does not 
know how to restore the equilibrium, so it attempts 
to undermine it. No one but a boor or a mischief- 
maker ever dreams of labor in overalls sitting upon a 
throne with capital under its feet. That would be 
tyranny, the same tyranny that capital now inflicts up- 
on labor. Where revenge is sought there will always 
be inglorious defeat. Revenge is the dream, the vis- 
ion of the European slave, the remedy of the Nihilist, 
Anarchist, Socialist. It has no place here, for "We 
are the people." 

When the laboring men of the United States begin 
to realize that they, and they alone, possess the power 
and ability to solve, not the labor question alone, but 
all other social questions; when they learn that all of 
the organized systems of pretended philanthropy, 
higher life, education, public welfare, morality, etc., 
are the mere shadows of the substance which they 
possess, and when they take these matters out of the 
feeble hands that are playing with them as children 
play with toys, or convert into money making 
schemes, then Labor will begin to assume its natural 
position; it will no longer ask for bread and receive a 
stone; it will not be left to the cold mercy of gold- 
greedy charity, but it will take its proper place beside 
capital, not as its inferior, but as its equal and vested 
with equal rights. These rights will be accorded it, 
and they will be maintained, for labor will then play a 
real part in the government of the nation, and will not 
remain satisfied with the crumbs that fall from Dives' 
table. 

Who that stops to think and look as far into the 
future as is permitted his mortal vision, does not see 



LABOR. 159 

that in labor is the only solution of the questions man- 
kind are striving to solve? What other power is there 
that can effect a solution? Can the present distressing 
condition of things go on forever, or even continue 
much longer, without sending men back into the 
slavery of the divine right system? Wealth is becom- 
ing more and more insolent, the money power more 
and more arbitrary and tyrannical, politics has become 
a mere grab for gold, the money poured into organized 
charity is doled out in infinitesimal quantities to make 
its necessity more apparent and justify its unceasing 
demands for more money. The poor are designedly 
kept in poverty for money making purposes, as their 
wages are cut lower and lower, even incorporated re- 
hgion pipes the "divine right" and ''Servants, obey 
your masters." 

Capital sits upon a high throne, and it must be taken 
down to stand beside labor, or labor must be elevated 
to sit beside capital. When, I repeat, labor realizes its 
power and understands its proper position — I am not 
now referring to European labor, but to the American 
kind — it will not be compelled to resort to the mak- 
shifts of petty strikes and boycotts. There will not be 
any more lockouts, for the man who attempts them will 
be treated as is one who defrauds a bank. The public 
welfare will be extended to cover the rights of labor, 
and capital will be made to understand that it can not ' 
glut itself with the product and leave the producer to 
starve. It will be a short, sharp revolution when united 
labor shall cease talking and act. When it shall be- 
come a machine like the great political machines, and 
cease to be an aggregated system of theories. When 
it shall cast out its petty, incompetent and treacherous 
leaders and, having fixed upon a platform with prin- 
ciples in accord with their rights and in accord with 
the rights of every other citizen, and in conformity 
with the organic law, which may be even changed if 
not sufficiently broad to protect their rights, and then 



i6o THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

announce to the political machines that the labor ma- 
chine is in working order, the other machines will 
hasten to apply for a trackage contract over the right 
of way. There will be a surrender of ill-gotten rights, 
and when a man wants work or bread he will get both 
without being sent to jail for vagrancy if he asks for 
either, and the Am.erican workingman who expresses 
an honest opinion of his own will not be "blacklisted" 
into pauperism along with his family, * 



CHAPTER XX. 

CORPORATIONS, TRUSTS, SYNDICATES. 

A dissection of this new Trinity which is apostoH- 
cizing the whole earth. 

In contemplating this New Trinity, let the reader 
pause and reverentially bow his uncovered head, for he 
stands beside the grave of human rights; over the fes- 
tering remains of the individual, above which floats as 
an aureole the apotheosis of that pernicious doctrine: 
"The greatest good to the smallest number." 

It required years of the most forcible civilization and 
an aggressive Christianity, amounting to the force of 
the Spanish Inquisition, to restrain the fanatical Hin- 
doos from immolating themselves beneath the wh^eels 
of their hideous idol's Juggernaut. Now the Hindoo 
no longer sacrifices himself to his sinister god, his body 
is no longer crushed and ground to death by the 
wheels of his chariot; all that is forgotten in the seduc- 
tive charms of a new dispensation. It came high, that 
new dispensation, and in blood and treasure it cost 
more than would have cost the Juggernaut had it kept 
on rohing until the end of time. But progress de- 
manded that they should be civilized, and it had to be. 
Moreover, there was money to be made by the civiliz- 
ers. 

If the soul of a Juggernaut victim could return to the 
scene of his great suicidal sacrifice he would find no 
dumb, senseless god parading in a crude, lumbering 
machine with its ponderous wheels roUing relentlessly 
over cracking bones and crushed and bleeding bodies. 

i6i 



i62 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

He would find the old superstition a thing of horrid 
memory, and in its place and stead a pleasanter and 
more civilized method, but an equally certain and 
deadly Juggernaut. 

Individual rights are as nothing compared with the 
uncontrollable rights and privileges of modern cor- 
porations, from which spring the most odious monopo- 
lies in the shape of ''trusts" and ''syndicates" in de- 
spite of the attempts of legislatures to control them. 
Originally intended to afiford opportunities for aggre- 
gating capital for the legitimate purposes of trade and 
manufactures, they have become so great an ab- 
sorbant of every department of human affairs that they 
destroy trade and business as well as cripple manu- 
factures by stifling competition, which has always been 
regarded as the life of trade. And not only this, the 
credit money issued by them in the shape of stocks 
and bonds form a seductive medium for speculation, in 
the hope of acquiring great and boundless wealth with- 
out earning it, in the presence of which lotteries, faro 
banks and the roulette wheel pale into insignificance. 
To.jthis may be added the fact of every day observance, 
that their influence has already overshadowed and now 
controls the government itself. Is labor ever con- 
sulted in the affairs of the government? Never; it is 
always the corporations, for the reason that they con- 
trol the financial output of the nation, and therefore 
manufacture its financial policy, whereas labor, which 
furnishes the money, stands by and permits it to be 
done, fearing the appellation, "anarchist, calamity 
howler," if it dare^raise its head in protest. It is the 
fable of the wolf and the lamb over again; the millen- 
nium when the lion and the lamb lie down together, 
but the lamb is inside the lion. 

There is no difficulty in defining what a corporation 
is, but there is a difficulty in defining what it is not. 
The trend of our judicial decisions is in the direction 
of attaching something supernatural to their powers, 



CORPORATIONS, TRUSTS, SYNDICATES. 16^ 

something holy to their operations which it would be 
sacrilegious to interfere with or curb. A wise man 
once said, "Corporations have no souls," putting his 
statement upon the ground that only the Almighty 
could create a soul, and that a man being the creator 
of corporations, it could not have a soul. It did not 
require a very wise man to tell us that, for we have the 
experience of every day that from three to fifteen men 
with responsible souls can lawfully combine and pro- 
duce a monster without a soul and without moral re- 
sponsibility. They may be good and respectable citi- 
zens, even church deacons remarkable for their per- 
sonal piety and goodness, but v/hen aggregated in a 
soulless machine they remorselessly and without the 
slightest compunctions of conscience permit it to go 
on and commit the most grievous acts of robbery, 
fraud, cheatery and oppression, and sanctimoniously 
pocket the profits and retain their proud positions of 
respectability, piety and honesty; nay, the Church, 
that great moral teacher, does not hesitate to invest 
its money where it will do the most good in that re- 
spect. It has always been supposed that on the great 
last day, man would be stripped of all entangling cir- 
cumstances and excuses and be compelled to stand 
upon his own personality, but it seems that many will 
seek to shield themselves behind articles of incorpora- 
tion and spring some constitutional question on the 
Creator if an attempt is made to deprive them of their 
defence. 

Every corporation is a trust, and, as we have said, 
was originally intended as a means of aggregating . 
capital for the legitimate purposes of trade, manufac- 
tures, etc. But in the majority of cases at the present 
day they are mere aggregations of worthless credit 
money commonly known as "wild cat" stock. The 
law permits an aggregated creation of individuals to 
do that which in the case of an individual would be 



i64 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

grounds for sending him to jail for fraud, robbery, ob- 
taining money by false pretences and the like. 

A few men, not less than three nor more than fifteen, 
except in the case of banks, when the number is un- 
limited, may incorporate and do that as a corporation 
which would be a crime if they were to do as indi- 
viduals. They may stock a "crowbait horse," a "hole 
in the ground," a worthless "patent right," an ineffec- 
tive process at a million dollars capital, and judge- 
made law sternly applies the maxim "caveat emptor" 
to the purchase of shares of stock, when it would com- 
pel the return of a man's money on the ground of 
fraud if he were persuaded to purchase for a song, the 
property on which the issue of capital stock is based 
to the extent of millions of dollars. 

A dishonest debtor does not need to abscond in 
these days; he takes his wife, his sisters and his cous- 
ins and his aunts in as dummies, incorporates accord- 
ing to law, sells his plant, his goods, wares and mer- 
chandise to the new creation for shares of stock, even 
for the entire issue, and the law says he lias received 
full value for it and the corporation is protected in its 
purchase, whereas an individual, even though he paid 
actual money, would be compelled to surrender to the 
creditors. 

A certificate of stock by law is money, transferable 
from hand to hand like bank bills, and may pass cur- 
rent as such, and if a man takes them, buying "a pig 
in a poke," he will not be heard to complain; nay, he 
is made doubly liable for the debts of the corporation 
existing at the time of his purchase to the full face 
value of the shares bought by him. This is worse 
than the credit money of the banks of 1857, for then 
the unwary citizen lost only what he paid, whereas 
now he not only loses the money paid for the stock, 
but as much more as will amount to its face value. 
A money making scheme which had no parallel in the 
dark ages, when men were unenlightened and only 



CORPORATIONS, TRUSTS, SYNDICATES. 165 

half civilized. The general public are compelled to re- 
deem the bogus money of corporations, while the pro- 
moters and manufacturers of it are not even liable for 
a single dollar. 

Our laws are all construed for the protection of cor- 
porations in their schemes to wring money from the 
people without value paid. They hold out their 
"temptations" to the public, dazzling them with beau- 
tifully engraved and lithographed certificates of stock 
bearing a large golden seal; in lurid prospectuses they 
hold out visions of wealth to be obtained for a song, 
and w^ith the names of distinguished American states- 
men, ratifying their statements and lending their 
names for a block of stock, as did the lords of Eng- 
land in Hooley's case, the public are blinded to their 
own interests and fall into the trap. True, the laws of 
some of the States surround the formation of corpora- 
tions with certain prerequisites, but when the laws of 
one State are not favorable, the promoters incorporate 
in a State where the laws are more lax; then they can 
do business anyvv^here in the United States, whether 
the laws regarding foreign corporations are complied 
with or not, the only penalty for the non-observance of 
such laws being a deprivation of the right to maintain 
an action in the courts. This, however, is easily over- 
come by assigning the claim to a resident, as is the 
case when a non-resident seeks to avoid the necessity 
of giving a bond for costs. The assignment cannot be 
inquired into, the courts presuming a valuable con- 
sideration. West Virginia is the present home of all 
sorts of bogus corporations and schemes to defraud 
and oppress mankind. Corporations with capital 
stock running up into the millions and based upon 
nothing, may there be formed at a cost of only fifty 
dollars in fees and they are then at liberty to sow their 
"wild cat" stock everywhere, or combine into trusts 
that destroy and ruin where they cannot control. 

There was once an attempt made to stop the fraudu- 



i66 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. i 

lent schemes of corporations, in a certain State where I 
the laboring men held sway. They enacted a law that | 
corporations should be taxed upon the total amount 
of their capital stock at its face value. This was 
proper, for the courts so hold, being unable to hold 
any other opinion without at the same time admitting : 
the fraud, that every corporation is assumed to have \ 
property equal in value to the amount of its capital i 
stock. i 

A certain man, who owned a controlling interest in i 
a certain gas company and managed its affairs, in order j 
to squeeze money out of the public, increased the capi- i 
tal stock of his company from one million five hundred j 
dollars, which happened to be the reasonable value of ) 
its property, to fifteen millions of dollars, its unreason- 
able value. To sell this increase stock he first gave it 
a ''moral" aspect by donating blocks of it to certain 
clergymen, who in their turn ''placed" it with servant ' 
girls, dressmakers and workingmen and women gen- j 
erally. But along came the Assessor and put the en- ] 
tire fifteen millions of dollars upon the assessment j 
rolls as the value of the company's property. He knew • 
it was ten times the value of the property, and so did . 
everybody else, but he deemed it his duty to obey this ' 
law, which this time was against fraud and in favor of ■ 
justice. The Assessor would not listen to any appeals ■ 
to reduce the assessment. "No," said he, "you say ■ 
this property is worth fifteen millions; you hold it out '; 
to the public to be worth that sum, and I will not per- i 
mit you to take advantage of your own fraud. That is \ 
a maxim of law which is always applied to a poor man ; 
in our courts, and I propose finding out whether it is ; 
also applicable to a corporation." ! 

The Assessor was denounced by all the corporation I 
newspapers as a scoundrelly workingman, an anarchist, i 
and various other epithets were hurled at him as is j 
customary in cases where robbery according to law is j 
interfered with, but he stuck. A writ of prohibition ! 

i 



CORPORATIONS, TRUSTS, SYNDICATES. 167 

was issued out of the Supreme Court, the court of last 
resort in that State, and the newspapers were nearly 
destroyed by spontaneous combustion in their frantic 
denunciations of "double taxation, robbery of the 
poor, destruction of constitutional rights, and the cus- 
tomary Uriah Heep melodramatic exhibitions. But the 
Supreme Court, whose chief justice was also an an- 
archistic workingman, stuck by the Assessor, and de- 
cided that he was correct in his application of the law. 

Then uprose the friend of humanity, and with the 
tears streaming down .his cheek, said: ''Your honor, 
what will become of the poor people who have bought 
that stock? They will be defrauded of their hard- 
earned money, and by a court of justice " ''Stop," 

said the Chief Justice, sternly, "that is a matter in- 
volving your own conscience, not the conscience of 
this court. Every man is presumed to know the con- 
sequences of his own acts." The next case was called 
and the incident closed. It may be added that the 
promoter of this scheme was not sent to jail, nor did 
the poor people ever get their money back, but there 
was a noticeable reduction of capital stock in that 
State immediately afterwards to somewhere near the 
actual value of its property. Is it exaggerating to say 
that if, in a certain State less than a thousand miles 
from New York City, corporations were taxed upon 
the amount of their capital stock, there would either be 
enough realized to pay the national debt, or else thou- 
sands of these bogus companies would go into some 
honest business? 

It is always the poor who must suffer, and there is 
not a case mentioned in history where human rights 
were sought to be obtained, recovered, or maintained, 
that the poor did not do the suffering, even to the 
shedding of their blood. There is food for thought in 
the fact that the rich never petition for a redress of 
their grievances. It is always the poor, and there has 
never been a human right obtained that was not vvTung 



i68 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

from the rich and povv^erful by the poor and maintained 
by their blood. Why are the poor dissatisfied and 
complaining? Their wants are never supplied, nor are 
even their moderate desires gratified. It is always 
wealth that doles out to them what it deems sufficient, 
and it is not in the nature of things that the *'dole" 
should be more than enough to maintain them in an 
abject condition of hungry, wistful subjection and de- 
pendence. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

STRIKES, BOYCOTTS, LOCKOUTS. 

The merits of this Trinity as a competitive Apostle of 
the one mentioned in the last chapter. 

The first lockout happened in the Garden of Eden 
and it brought disaster upon the whole human race; 
indeed, there are many who argue that we have not yet 
recovered from its eflect. True, our first parents for- 
feited their and our birthright, but the judge was the 
Creator, and if in his wisdom he formulated the plan 
which plunged the human race into a slough of misery, 
and left nothing but Hades for him to expect, he had 
good and sufficient reasons. We feel at liberty to say, 
however, that whatever His reasons were He was not 
governed by selfish, personal motives, as are His imi- 
tators at the present day. 

Our revolutionary fathers ''struck" against the op- 
pressions of England and secured the blessings of 
freedom for a nation that under its auspices has be- 
come great and glorious. So it has always been since 
the world began; when a nation or people felt the 
shackles of slavery, they rose up and struck them from 
their limbs. 

Our own government boycotted Cuba by blockad- 
ing it with a fleet of warships, and it may be said that 
boycotts against evil doers and oppressors have been 
ratified by the Almighty himself. The pages of his- 
tory teem with instances of strikes and boycotts, and 
good has always come of them, whereas lockouts have 
resulted in nothing but disaster and wrong. 

169 



170 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 



I 



TRere is truly respectable authority for strikes and 
boycotts, far better and more reliable authority in the 
history of the human race than is found in the dic- 
tionaries, which attach a pernicious idea to them and \ 
charge the Irish with their paternity. Well, iniquity j 
lies unto itself at times, and some are hoist by their j 
own petard. If the Irish are to be charged with what- j 
ever has been of benefit to the human race, let them | 
have the honor of it. j 

A clergyman recently wrote a book upon the sub- j 

ject "Applied Christianity," and in the usual manner \ 

of clergymen who fight the battles of Mammon, he j 

frothed at the mouth at the wickedness of strikes and '; 

boycotts, but finally settled down into what he pos- ] 

sibly thought was sarcasm, but which was the un- | 

witting truth, and said: "The publication of a boy- ^ 

cott is an excellent advertisement of the boycotted j 

dealer." So we have it on the word of a clergyman \ 

that a boycott is of benefit, an accomplished good, i 

What, then, can be said against them? | 

This clergyman is like many others who condemn ; 
the efforts of labor to alleviate its condition. In fact, 

there has never been an attempt made on the part of I 

any oppressed people to free themselves, that some \ 

clergyman did not frown upon it, bewail it and de- \ 

nounce it. This peculiarity arises from the idea of ] 

"divine right" which the profession of theology applies i 

to Mammon, notwithstanding the fact that Christ him- ; 

self commanded their separation. The "Things which i 

are God's" are inextricably mixed with the "Things j 

which are Caesar's." Thus it was that John Wesley j 

in his spiritual ardor felt it his patriotic duty to crawl \ 

at the feet of an English king and offer to betray the ; 

infant Colonies of this country, who were struggling j 

for freedom from oppression. It has always been, and ' 

is now, the theological idea that man should suffer i 

uncomplainingly here below, in order that he may fit | 

himself for a glorious eternity of freedom and happi- \ 



STRIKES, BOYCOTTS, LOCKOUTS. 171 

ness in the green pastures and beside the purhng 
brooks of Paradise. The band wagon that blares forth 
a future blessed condition of humanity is the same as 
the political band wagon that flaunts the most gor- 
geous promises upon its banners, while the band- 
masters swell out their fat paunches in exultation at 
their power to hoodwink humanity. It is the same 
empty stomach, whether it be fed upon the- husks of 
political promises of relief or the theological fiat: 
"Make your peace with God, and then you shall have 
some soup." When the Dives of politics and theology 
permit a few crumbs to be gathered up by the Lazarus 
of Labor, instead of carefully sweeping them up for 
their dogs, mankind may be able to compare the bless- 
ings of the other life with those they enjoy in this, and 
not consider everything a Hell. 

Wholly disregarding the fact that there never was a 
slave who sought to strike the shackles from his limbs, 
that did not prefigure the efforts of labor to obtain a 
recognition of rights superior to those of abject slavery 
and submission to the selfish whims of its masters, 
there has been attached to those struggles of labor a 
stigma, an immorality, and all kinds of differently 
worded laws have been passed to restrain them upon 
criminal grounds as conspiracies against the rights of 
others. But when Mammon, in the shape of Capital, 
conspires against labor, there are not only no laws 
passed to restrain it, but positive legislation extends the 
power to dominate it. The merchant, the manufac- 
turer and the others proudly stand upon their superior 
right to manage their business in their own way. 
They, and they alone, are running their own business 
and they are running it to suit themselves. They are 
absorbing all the rights and leave none whatever for 
others. An ocean of egoism, not a drop of altruism. 
With unlimited work to be done, and a multitude of 
willing workers ready to perform it, their families suf- 
fering the pangs of hunger and starving before their 



172 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

eyes, Mammon defies them until they consent to ac- 
cept a pittance that reduces their hves to that of the 
mere existence of animals without souls. Whoso 
seizes upon the bread to stay the pangs of hunger is 
sent to prison for the crime; whoso deprives him of 
that bread is a law-abiding citizen. A man is justified 
in killing him who seeks his life, it is self-defence, and 
it is based upon a maxim that has. held good since 
the world began: ''Self-preservation is the first law of 
nature." But when labor seeks that self preservation 
in strike or boycott, it is shot down in cold blood, and 
the killers awarded gold medals. 

There are some who fear that this government will 
become so strong that the people will lose some of 
their constitutional rights. There is no ground for 
such a fear, for even now it is not strong enough to 
protect its own citizens, and permits unauthorized 
bodies of men termed "deputies," the agents of Mam- 
mon, to shoot and kill to their bloody minds' content. 
There is no fear to be apprehended in centralization. 
There was centralization, martial law, in the late war 
with Spain; the government had but to speak through 
its officials and the thing would be done, but they let 
our soldiers starve and die for lack of the necessaries 
of life, and they did not blush when charity came in to 
fill the place of duty. The fault is not with our 
system; it is in the administrators of that system, poli- 
ticians who worship the gold of Mammon and know 
no other god. The mystery is that they should be per- 
mitted to do it. 

With the greater part of the money of the country 
the product of labor, labor loans it to Mammon, who 
uses it to crush him further down. It is useless to ex- 
pect that labor will combine and use the ballot for re- 
lief, for their leaders fall before the temptation of gold 
and the cause is betrayed, or else they are led by for- 
eign visionaries and fall into disorders which accom- 
plish their ruin. There is no political party or selfish 



STRIKES, BOYCOTTS, LOCKOUTS. 173 

government policy that could stand a moment against 
the power of Labor with a united ballot in its hands. 
The merg idea of such an overwhelming power 
would send the politicians into spasms, and to over- 
come it or secure its influence they would make the 
most abject promises of radical reform, and when they 
got into office they would fail to keep any of them. 
This has been going on for a generation, and there are 
no signs of a change. What a grand strike it would 
be, what an effective boycott, if Labor were to actually, 
not theoretically, cut loose from great political 
parties that keep on riveting its shackles! But 
it is not to be, and so Labor continues to strike 
and boycott and submit to lockouts that are of no 
efftciency because they are not followed up. Napo- 
leon's practice was, when he had given an enemy a 
preliminary thrashing he kept on following him up 
until he was smashed. He did not ''hurrah" until he 
had won. It is a good thing for the labor leaders, 
however, for they are never out of a job. With the 
money of the poor lining their pockets, they appear 
on public platforms in dress suits and talk learnedly of 
what labor is going to do, and labor does nothing but 
try to earn more money to give them and to loan the 
capitalists. 

It is all a question of money, friend, and not of right 
or wrong. Human rights have nothing to do with 
the labor question, which ought to be fully understood 
by this time, if it ever will be understood. What is 
the money power doing with your money? Why do 
you let that power have it? Suppose you keep it in 
your own possession or under your own control? 
What would happen? You would not have to scrimp 
and save to do it, you could keep right on just as you 
are doing now, but the banks would not get it, nor 
would the various attractive ways that tempt it out of 
your pockets steal it from you. That is the money you 
might keep and you would have bread and beer the 



174 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. ; 

same as now. You could not be any worse off, but by; 
and by the banks would need money, speculators! 
would have to have it; they would try to coax it out; 
of you by offering a good rate of interest and appeal to i 
your patriotism. But you would not let them have it, j 
you would hold on to it. What a difference you ! 
would then see, friend. The government would rush) 
to the rescue of capital, as it always does, and as it ■ 
never does when labor is suffering. Silver would be \ 
remonetized, the mints would be working night and ; 
day, government credit money in the shape of bank ] 
bills would then be the proper thing to issue. You ; 
would be adding to your pile all the time, and if things i 
increased in price you would have the money to buy \ 
them with and would not need charity. The politi- j 
cians would pat you on the back and call you a "good \ 
fellow" instead of anarchist. Your wives would sing ; 
at their work and your children dance on their way to j 
school. You would laugh and grow fat, but the other | 
fellows would not suffer. You would see to that, and j 
help them a little, about as much as they help you i 
now. You would organize little charities for them ; 
and give them plenty of soup without compelling them : 
to join the church or give a certificate of good moral j 
character. In this and in various other ways that \ 
might occur to you, you would heap so many coals of \ 
fire on their heads that they would reform and adopt ] 
more altruistic and less egoistic methods in the manner ; 
of doing business. I 

All this, however, "is to laugh," but there are so i 
many ridiculous and impracticable theories floating \ 
about that the addition of a few more will only cause | 
a slight diversion. - < 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ARRANT LAW. 

Some persons imagine everything to be law that is 

called law. They will learn different in this 

chapter. Sometimes the law is itself 

more of a crime than its violation. 

''Laws are like cobwebs where the small 
flies are caught and the great ones break 
through." 

We fancy that we have progressed in law, govern- 
ment and civics generally, but have we? 

It is true that in the matter of punishing crimes 
against money we have reached a pitch of perfection 
that would make a freebooter stare, and in our man- 
ner of enforcing the payment of taxes and collecting 
revenue we can give pointers to a Turkish tax farmer. 

We have systematized and arranged hoi polloi in 
job lots, herded them like cattle according to the value 
of their hides and tallow and their milk-giving qual- 
ities, and in the skinning, rendering and milkmg 
process we labor under a greater sense of the obliga- 
tion of getting than how we get it. 

It is not in the multitude of invasions of the per- 
sonal rights of individuals, nor in the mistaken and 
often corrupt interpretation of the proper application 
of the organic privileges which are possessed by all 
citizens in common that we are to look for law, yet so 
numerous and so flagrant, withal so universal, have be- 
come the violations of the plainest rights of citizens 

175 



176 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

in the pretended necessary regulations of their mutual 
intercourse; so difficult has it become to resist the un- 
constitutional exercise of official power and the ex- 
aggerated performance of alleged official duties, that 
the citizen has' been transformed into an abject slave, 
with so much fear of the power governing him, and 
which is an object of his own creation, that he feels 
himself powerless to either throw off or shift the yoke ^ 
imposed upon him. j 

In the fact that innocent men are often condemned l 
to death and actually executed through the weakness l 
or corruption of some time-serving judge permitting ' 
incompetent evidence to be presented to a jury, acted j 
upon by a vicious public prosecutor zealous for no- \ 
toriety, or like a windbag goaded on by the plaints | 
and servile, ignorant clamor of beer drinking, con- ] 
ceited editors, there is nothing that can weigh against ! 
the principles upon which our system of laws was ] 
originally founded. ] 

When the wealthy plunderers of thousands of con- ' 
fiding citizens drive their victims to the verge of star- ■ 
vation and despair and themselves find relief at the { 
hands of a facile jury, or in the sympathetic exercise of ■ 
the pardoning power, no man can justly insert a wedge i 
in the foundation of the system that forbids it. \ 

Men and women are daily shot to death and clubbed ] 
into insanity for a mere refusal to obey the imperious i 
summons of some petty official who, unpunished, con- i 
stitutes himself an executioner of the citizen whom the ', 
law even dare not kill without a solemn trial. ; 

Upon some trivial technicality arising under a rev- \ 
enue law, the citizen is ruined in his business, his home j 
destroyed and all his earthly prospects forever blasted j 
to gratify virtuous spite, or to aid a political issue. { 

Under the guise of religion men may stand behind 1 
the protecting aegis of a church incorporated accord- ; 
ing to law, and rant and rave and let drip from their lips I 
the most venomous and filthy slanders, vituperations \ 



ARRANT LAW. 177 

and calumnies, even unto the open denunciation of the 
purest of wives and mothers as harlots, and no man 
raises his voice in protest lest he interfere with that re- 
ligious liberty and liberty of conscience so positively 
established by our organic law. 

When the homes and privacy of the citizen is in- 
truded upon, and his most sacred personal rights tres- 
passed and trampled upon with impunity, when fam- 
ilies are broken up and scattered and the heart's blood 
of mothers wrung from them at the enforced sacri- 
fice of her children to the maw of a power that is 
greater than the law which created it, there is not a 
word of protest or complamt, for all men know that 
the general good is the supposed aim. 

We bow with submission to the Supreme Court of 
the United States when it declares that a State law 
providing for a cumulative sentence of three thousand 
years for selling beer is good law and constitutional, 
although we somewhere feel within us a sentiment that 
the Spanish Inquisition would be more merciful, for its 
victims were, at least permitted to find relief in death. 

We feel that the heroes who shed their blood to 
abolish the same kind of law, shed it in vain, when we 
read Mr. Justice Brewer's opinion in the Kansas case, 
that a State law confiscating millions of dollars' worth 
of property for the technical violation of a mere rev- 
enue regulation is perfectly just and proper, and in 
harmony with our institutions, although our organic 
law forbids anything approaching the old bill of at- 
tainder. 

In a western city of alleged civilization and culture, a 
poor man was sent to jail for thirty days for engaging 
in the butcher business without a license. He had 
killed and carved a pet lamb, the only food he had 
for himself and his starving family. 

In another twentieth centtu'y city a saloon man was 
sent to jail for thirty days without bail, because his 
servant, while cleaning up one Sunday, gave a sick 



178 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

man a little brandy, and the same judge who followed 
the law discharged a man who had killed his brother 
in a fit of rage. 

A young man unable to stop a hard-bitted horse 
and a small boy hurrying home from school are shot 
dead by a policeman because they refused to stop 
immediately they were ordered. 

A poor woman hastening to* a drug store to procure 
medicine for a sick infant, the doctor meanwhile wait- 
ing for it, is clubbed into insensibility by a guardian 
of the peace and thrown into a cell. The woman be- 
comes insane and the baby dies, but the majesty of the 
club law receives a bouquet at the hands of a man who 
stood in his pulpit and denounced the majority of the 
respectable wives and mothers of New York city as 
harlots, and neither he nor the policeman were tarred 
and feathered. 

Those whose hides and tallow are worthless and who 
cannot be milked are thrown into jail under vagrancy 
laws and the public treasuries milked for the costs and 
fees charged for the labor of doing it. 

But these are mere amusing, segregated evils and 
are not to be attributed to the sentiments of justice and 
equity underlying our laws, for it is a well known and 
understood theory that our laws are intended for the 
greatest good to the smallest number. Wherefore, 
though the many should perish and the few alone sur- 
vive, that would be the legitimate result of our system 
and in full accord with our institutions. Nay, it may 
soon come to pass that the vast majority, the ninety- 
nine per centum of our entire population, will be called 
upon as patriots to surrender their few remaining liber- 
ties to the control and domination of the one per 
centum. This would not be so very far away from the 
present outlook; indeed, much less than one per cent, 
of our population now have the entire control of the 
fate of the other ninety-nine per centum. The re- 
establishment of slavery in Georgia and Florida by the 



\ 

ARRANT LAW. 179 

open sale of white men to work in the mines, and the 
whipping post and tortures of the electric chair, indi- 
. cate that we are crawfishing in the direction of the old 
feudal days. 

It would not be surprising if the ninety-nine per 
centum should suddenly awaken to a realizing sense of 
their strength, and under a leadership that. will not sell 
his companions for paltry gold retake the rights which 
the laws have deprived them of. A violation of law for 
justice sake, a paradox exhibited in the United States 
for the first time in the history of the world. 

But there is no danger of such a calamity, as any per- 
son may perceive by a judicial survey of the situation 
which is commanded wholly by the one per cent., and 
the ninety-nine per cent, are timid about even express- 
ing a political opinion not in strict accord with the 
others, since they are denounced as anarchists for so 
daring to do. It is a case of the wolf and the lamb 
reversed. 

There was a time when it was held to be the correct 
theory that whatever power was not conferred upon 
the governing class in the organic law was retained by 
and remained at the command of the people, a ''re- 
serve power" which they might call into play at any 
time for their own protection should the government 
be powerless to act. This reserve force, belonging to 
the people, sometimes breaks out in mining districts, 
in what are known as "vigilance committees" and in 
"lynchings" and other acts, in which an entire com- 
munity acts as a unit to obtain redress of some injury 
which the courts have no power to grant, or where 
they refuse to act. It was a long time before the Ital- 
ian government could be made to understand our sys- 
tem of government in that respect when it laid claim 
for damages and redress for the lynching of the Mafias 
in New Orleans and in Colorado. As a rule now, 
however, the careful decisions of our courts have shorn 
the people of that reserve power and extended it to the 



i8o THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

various governments of the country under the name 
of ''Pohce Power," a pretended inherent power in the 
constitt^tional government itseh to travel beyond its 
Hmitations to the extent of restraining the people from 
the exercise of any reserve authority or any authority 
whatever, except the mere casting of a ballot to select 
their rulers, and even that power is very much curbed 
by registration laws which will eventually confer the 
right of suffrage upon those only who are in accord 
with the policy of some administration. 

This domination of the reserve power and authority 
is more plainly perceptible in municipal ordinances 
and regulations, the prohibitions in which reach as far 
as the confiscation of property and down along every 
grade and character of human acts, even to expector- 
ation in public places and innocent exclamations. 

The distinction between a tax and a license, though 
not perceptible to the eye' of a layman, is quite clear 
to the judiciary, and hence, it is settled law that a man 
may be taxed into submission and likewise licensed 
out of existence, or at least put in a condition where 
the only thing at his command is the free exercise of 
the involuntary muscles of his body. When the day 
shall arrive requiring a limitation upon the quantity of 
air a citizen may consume, a means will be discovered 
of regulating it for the benefit of the one per centum. 

Like drowning men we are grasping at the straws of 
arrant law, finding in them our hopes of salvation, 
while persistently turning our faces away from the life- 
boat of justice and equity. Petted and stufifed by poli- 
ticians like Strasburg geese, we fancy we are enjoying 
great blessings until we find when our fatness is ap- 
propriated that we are nothing but geese. 

I fancy that we have become so impregnated, sat- 
urated, with foreign ideas, that we can no longer see 
or understand our own rights and privileges. Not 
that we are suffering very much, oh, dear, no; but that 
is not the point. We do not suffer from razors and 



ARRANT LAW. i8r 

poisons, nor do we dream of any danger lurking be- 
hind them, but when we see a razor in the hands of a 
lunatic or a child it becomes a deadly weapon and we 
fear it. So we look upon barrels of poison bravely and 
without a tremor, but having swallowed a small por- 
tion we turn tail in a cowardly manner and run after a 
physician, 

Our law is like a loaded gun charged to the muzzle 
with deadly missiles of all kinds. We admire the 
make of it, its beautiful proportions, its carvings and 
mountings, we take pleasure in the possession of it, 
and exhibit it with pride on all occasions. But along 
comes somebody who takes it down from its secure 
resting place, points it directly at our heads and with 
finger on the hair trigger, says: "Your money or your 
life!" What a good joke, and we laugh at it, but by 
and by we grow uneasy, we can see into the muzzle 
which begins to look very large, and the deadly mis- 
siles are protruding out of it. It might go off and then 
where would we be? So w^e surrender our money to 
save our life. The fault is all our own, for we should 
not have permitted the "somebody" to take it out of 
our possession and control, and handle it to our loss 
and damage. 

It is what we are doing, however, with our law. It 
is loaded with deadly things, and it has a very delicate 
hair-trigger, the sHghtest pressure upon it, and presto! 
we are gone. Yet we permit everybody to tam.per with 
it, we even laugh when it is aimed at someone else, 
though we stop laughing when the muzzle shifts 
around our way. We have submitted so long to this 
tampering with our laws that we have lost control 
of them, and the persons who have taken charge of 
their administration have come to look upon it as their 
right to continue and expect us to submit always, visit- 
ing upon us the severest penalties for contempt of 
court if we exhibit the slightest traces of our former 
independence. 



i82 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

These are small things, slight encroachments, It Is 
true, but they aggregate greater things than the causes 
which produced the Declaration of Independence. We 
will have to try what throwing overboard the tea again 
will accomplish, but this time we shall not disguise 
ourselves as Indians, but be and remain American citi- 
zens without disguise. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THROWING THE TEA OVERBOARD. 

It is time to prepare for a new Declaration of 
Independence. 

Aside from "Great National Questions," as they are 
called, the main object of which in political platforms 
is to create a dense smoke to conceal the stolen fire- 
wood kindled with the sparks of patriotism, are a mul- 
titude of trivialities to which very little attention is 
directed because of their obscuration by the smoke 
aforesaid. In the great hurrah over "public welfare, 
general good" and the like, we forget that it is the "in- 
dividual good" which creates the. national good. We 
think we synthetize, whereas we analyze, for our sup- 
posed synthesis is the apex of analysis, and there we 
stick at the extremes without doing anything. We 
plant our flag on the summit of the hill with 
loud huzzas, while underneath are forces at work bur- 
rowing us down to ruin. So it always has been; we 
are always dazzled by the glare and blare of big things, 
while little things are noiselessly engaged in accom- 
plishing our ruin. A farmer can always protect his 
crops against an enemy above ground, but the numer- 
ous hidden agents working at the roots of his produc- 
tions are not heeded until too late. We do not pro- 
tect our cheese against elephants, but against rats and 
mice. 

The poor suffer more from the small interferences 
with their rights and privileges than they do from 
great ones, for the forces at work to perpetuate pov- 

183 



i84 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

erty do not work openly to any large extent, but con- 
fine themselves to bagatelles which excite no com- 
ments. The aggregate of these trifles, however, ac- 
quires immense proportions amounting to "public 
evils, general loss," as opposed to ''public welfare, gen- 
eral good," etc. Nobody considers a nickel as of much 
account, but a multitude of nickels expended in car 
fares makes enormous dividends to the companies, and 
enables them to say to you and to me: "The public 
be damned." It is the misapplication of the expres- 
sions "public welfare, general good" and the multipli- 
cation of individual wrongs which is making the rich 
richer and the poor poorer. 

Why is it that the laborer is so often defrauded of 
the product of his toi] and the material man of his 
merchandise under mechanics' lien laws ostensibly en- 
acted to prevent it? The answer is because he is post- 
poned to the capitalist. Tf the mechanic and laborer 
were given a lien superior to purchase money and 
builder's contract, there would be more justice than 
can be found in the present law, and speculators would 
not so easily acquire valuable property by the robbery 
of the laborer as is done every day. It is a fact, as 
stated in another chapter, that the speculator is allowed 
by law to conspire with the owner of property and a 
builder to secure labor and materials sufficient to make 
the property highly productive and valuable, and then 
by foreclosing on a purchase money mortgage of a 
grossly excessive amount, "cut out" the laborer and 
the material man. The author can cite one single case 
in New York City in which the laborers and material 
men were done out of twenty thousand dollars in this 
way, and the amount of all of the cases of similar fraud 
and robbery runs up into millions. We recognize 
labor in a sentimental way and then defraud it. Labor 
is entitled to a first and superior lien upon its own pro- 
duction, and should even be relieved from the ex- 
pense of filing a so-called lien which is no lien, and 



THROWING THE TEA OVERBOARD. 185 

be permitted to prove its claim as in the case of claims 
against the estate of a deceased person or an insolvent, 
and as a preferred claim. 

In the matter of exemptions, a man mnst be a house- 
holder or the head of a family before he can hold even 
the clothes on his back. A woman, though single, 
may have all the exemptions of a householder, and 
m.ay even have her debtor arrested and confined in jail 
without benefit of bail if he refuse or is unable to pay 
her the wages she is entitled to. 

The rights of creditors, except when they are labor- 
ers, are strained to the utmost in his favor, and the 
doctrine of caveat emptor stretched to obscure the 
rights of the debtor. It works hardship to enforce un- 
equal rights. A man of family is allowed certain ex- 
emptions, a pair of andirons, a coal scuttle and other 
useful articles, including a cow and two hogs, which 
the municipal authorities say he shall not be allowed to 
keep. Other nonsensical things are included in his 
exemptions, things which if he had would justify him 
in opening a wholesale provision store, but he never 
gets that much ahead, and the law does not supply any 
deficiencies in the poor man's stores any more than it 
does in the money market. In the case of provisions, 
the creditor may take them all away from him in an 
action for the purchase money. When a merchant 
sells a man goods, the purchaser is bound to pay for 
them if he accepts them, and if he does not, the credi- 
tor may take everything away from him, except his 
pair of andirons, coal scuttle, etc., and leave his fam- 
ily flat upon their backs without bread. Yes, there are 
two other things he may keep and welcome: a pew in 
a church and a lot in a graveyard, but bread, no. If 
the creditor were confronted with the rights of a help- 
less family, wife and children, and the doctrine of 
caveat vendor applied for their benefit, there would 
be less pauperism created. In the case of chattel mort- 
gages on household furniture, the grasping mort- 



i86 [THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

gagee is allowed to take back by force even the bed 
from under a sick woman, retain the money already 
advanced, which is as much as the rickety stuff is 
worth, and in addition put the mortgagor in prison for 
failure to pay the balance due. If this is not punishing 
poverty, what is it? The man who creates a pauper 
should be as much of a criminal as he who robs an- 
other of his money. But "business is business," and 
so it goes with the letter of the law creating pauperism. 

When a man borrows money from a building and 
loan association he is compelled to buy a number of 
shares more than equal to the amount he borrows and 
he drags out his life trying to pay up. But if he buys 
the shares and does not borrow, he receives as much 
benefit as if he did borrow. They are money making 
institutions, where the poor man struggling for a home 
is the victim. If any one imagines they are charitable 
or beneficial institutions, let him borrow money from 
them. 

But why continue to schedule matters with which 
every one is or should be acquainted, or from which 
he may have suffered? It is money that is over-pro- 
tected and the personal rights of the poor that are 
disregarded. By "poor" I do not mean the man or 
Avoman actually suffering the pangs of hunger, though 
there are many of them, too many, but I mean the man 
who is dependent upon his continual, every day labor 
for bread and meat, whether he is a sewer digger, a 
dry goods clerk, or an underpaid newspaper reporter. 
The loss of labor and the failure to get it means starva- 
tion. It hangs over one's head like the sword of Dam- 
ocles, and the slender thread which holds it grows 
more slender and frays out when he resists. We are 
becoming afraid to say our souls are our own. The 
law might afford relief, but there are none who will 
enact such laws. Who would dare impose a tax upon 
the capital stock of corporations? A howl of "double 
taxation" would be raised, but you and I know, reader, 



THROWING THE TEA OVERBOARD. 187 

that all the property most corporations have is their 
"wild cat" stock, and double taxation would be no 
bugbear, except to those desirous of perfecting their 
fraudulent schemes and seducing money out of the 
pockets of the poor and needy, without giving any- 
thing in return. Where is the man bold enough to cut 
loose from ancient forms originating in oppression and 
declare that a foreclosure, an execution or attachment 
shall not take all a debtor has on earth, and leave his 
innocent wife and helpless family to pauperism? True, 
a man is responsible for his own acts, but the innocent 
and helpless should not be punished either for his folly 
or his crimes. H the laws against usury were applied 
to rents, the sky would certainly fall, and if a banker 
were sent to jail for doing that through a broker which 
he may not do himself, the President of the United 
States, moved to compassion for the banking business, 
would pardon him out. What would happen if all 
government money were exempt from taxation and 
individual credit money taxed as property? Why, 
Europe, A.^ia, Africa, China and Japan would make us 
take ofif the tax, and the administrators of the affairs 
of this government, who appear to be managing them 
for the benefit of every other nation on earth except 
the United States, would remove the tax as an oner- 
ous burden. Suppose licenses were to be construed to 
mean regulation instead of the ruin and confiscation 
of a man's business and property. How the reformers 
and prohibitionists would rattle their teeth in dismay 
and utter the darkest threats. H all of our irresponsi- 
ble and intermeddling charity societies were taken pos- 
session of by the State, our un-American churches 
would foam at the mouth and have a fit, but there 
would be no more starvation. H a man charged with a 
crime were protected from the rack and thumbscrew of 
police ofucials and the latter sent to prison for violat- 
ing the rights of American citizens, we should feel that 
the Spanish Inquisition is really but a horrid dream. 



[88 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

If the six or seven different icinds of public, private 
and volunteer policemen and detectives, who manu- 
facture crime for the purpose of preventing it, were 
punished as accessories before, during and after the 
fact, there would be less crime committed and very lit- 
tle to detect. When the "Police Power" of the State 
is retained by the State and not delegated to private in- 
dividuals, the citizen can sleep in peace unmolested 
and secure in his hom.e as in a castle. When the 
social evil shall be regulated by the State, and its dis- 
eases quarantined, there will be less sins of the parents 
to descend to the third and fourth generations. When 
poverty and misfortune shall not be regarded as 
crimes, but deemed entitled to the same protection as 
the millionaire and the harlot in silks and satins, we 
shall then begin to be Americans. 

On the contrary, if all these and numerous other 
things be ignored, one might as well be the subject 
of the king of Dahomey. 

The rights of American citizens, both in their indi- 
vidual and public capacities, together with the financial 
policy of the government, are issues of the gravest 
importance to the people if not to the money power 
and to bankers and trusts, and when the political par- 
ties and their bosses begin to comprehend that those 
issues must be made in favor of the people, there will 
be less theorizing upon sentimental matters, and more 
attention paid to the power behind them all that de- 
mands its rights, and that the country should be made 
to support the people it now contains. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

CHARITY. 

Some reasons going to show that American citizens 
are not objects of charity. 

That there is a strong connecting hnk between our 
systems of charity and the proselytizing impulse of re- 
ligion is evidenced by the fact that religion "and soup 
are commonly administered in conjunction. A man 
is hungry; very well, he can have bread and soup, but 
if he is a sinner or does not bear a badge of good moral 
character he is brushed aside and so far away from the 
soup pot that his nostrils cannot get even a vv^hiff of its 
savory steam. 

There may be some good and valid reason for this 
inconsistent conduct; indeed, it may be based upon the 
idea that men do not need charity so much as work, 
and therefore to distribute charity indiscriminately 
would be to encourage idleness. There is a paradox 
in this common method of reasoning. If men want 
work and not charity, and to feed the hungry is to en- 
courage idleness, what is to become of the multitude 
that cannot find work? If the enormous sums of 
money wasted on useless charities v/ere to be turned 
into labor the problem would be nearly solved. 

It is a fact recorded daily in our newspapers and 
boastingly declared from our pulpits that individually 
and as a nation we raise more money for charity than 
any other nation on earth. That is a very poor show- 
ing for our "institutions," and indicates what is said 
over and over again in this book, that we are in a 
189 



190 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

worse condition than any other nation, notwithstand- 
ing our greater productions and our infinitely super- 
ior system of government. In a country that produces 
more than any other country on earth, and which can 
support many more milhons than it now contains, peo- 
ple faint and die of hunger even on our public streets, 
and are often carried away in public ambulances from 
the very doors of plethoric charitable institutions, 
where they have been refused bread. The young, the 
starving laborer, the aged, the infirm, the cripple and 
every class of destitution may be seen on our public 
streets daily and nightly crying for bread, to receive in 
lieu thereof the stone of some peace officer's "G'wan 
now, or ril run ye in," and this in the shadow of in- 
stitutions that receive millions of dollars per annum to 
relieve such distress. Some call them "beggars," but 
a mere nomenclature does not alter the fact, and in 
this case it is not every man who can starve like a 
gentleman or who has the heart to see his family gaunt 
with famine. He therefore asks for food or that 
which in the absence of labor is the only thing that 
Avill procure food, to wit, "money," whereupon he be- 
comes a criminal. If this is not creating a monopoly 
of organized charity by law, then there are no mon- 
opolies, trusts or syndicates on earth. 

It is only the poor, the starving, who ask for food, 
that are denominated "beggars," and who are cast into 
prison upon the charge of vagrancy. There is a crowd 
of other "beggars," who ply their vocation unmolested 
by the kind permission of the authorities. They wear 
tine linen, imbibe high-priced wines, dine upon pate 
de foie gras, and are paid large salaries and commis- 
sions, one charitable concern in New York having 
once offered as high as twenty-five per cent, commis- 
sions for money collected in the name of charity. 
They hold fairs and devise money making schemes in 
the name of blessed charity, and out of the proceeds 
retain sufficient to keep them in silks and satins and 



CHARITY. 191 

tailor-made gowns, cigars and whiskey, until the next 
charity fandango occurs. They travel all over the 
world in first-class style with their sisters and their 
cousins and their aunts, hobnob with the nobility of 
effete Europe, and with a bottle of perfumery held to 
their delicate nostrils commiserate the miseries of the 
poor. Their glowing reports of the great good they 
have started to do and of the sufferings they have ahe- 
viated in their imaginations, together with the beauti- 
ful time they had with lord this and lady that, bring 
tears to the eyes of their maudlin auditory and a check 
for their expenses out of the charity fund. 

The purpose these people start out to accomplish 
does not appear to be ever accomplished, but always 
about to be accomplished. Common casual observa- 
tion tells us that poverty is increasing and the condi- 
tions surrounding the poor are becoming more and 
more deplorable, whence we are at liberty to surmise 
that all these respectable beggars are obtaining money 
by false pretences, and if there were any power that 
would insist upon the enforcement of our laws in ac- 
cordance with their spirit, they would be held to a 
strict accounting and forced to disgorge, or be sent to 
jail like any vulgar, poor crfminal. There would cer- 
tainly be more justice in that than in making a crim- 
inal out of a man who has neither money nor bread 
because he attempts to procure either in the only way 
he is able. 

As was hinted at above, one would suppose from 
the millions invested in charity that we are a nation 
of beggars, but when he surveys the magnificent tem- 
ples and palaces erected to the cause of charity, he 
laughs in his sleeve and rapidly reaches the conclusion 
that charity in America is a grand money making 
scheme in which the Lord is the beneficiary and the 
managers the trustees, a neck and neck competition 
with the banks, corporations, trusts and syndicates to 
grab all the money possible and distribute it according 



192 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

to their own whims. When we read of an organized 
charity receiving over ten miUions of dollars annually 
for charitable purposes, and yet unable to furnish a 
starving man or woman immediate relief, except on 
the recommendation of some clerical Uriah Heep, who 
may happen to be in Switzerland engaged in reform- 
ing the morals of that deplorable republic and using 
charity money for the object, we are inclined to doubt 
the wisdom of permitting these irresponsible people to 
have the absolute control of all this money. It is use- 
less to argue that a man has the right to put his money 
where he pleases or give it or throw it away if he 
wishes; he has no more right to do that than he has to 
commit suicide. The State has the right to exercise 
its sovereignty over abandoned or misused property 
whether it be money or poison. 

When it comes to the fact that our charities cost an 
average of about three dollars in salaries and expenses 
for every dollar actually expended in relieving the 
pressing wants of the poor, it is time for the govern- 
ment to call a halt, as it may do, and as it does do 
when it prohibits a man from collecting usurious in- 
terest. 

There is one society which the lavv^ ought to coun- 
tenance, and to the management and control of which 
it should transfer all other so-called charitable organi- 
zations, and that is a society for the protection of hu- 
man beings and for the destruction of poverty. What 
do I say? A society for the protection of human be- 
ings and the destruction of poverty? What an ab- 
surdity! As if any society or syndicate of societies 
could protect humanity or mitigate poverty, when the 
government serenely stands by and refuses to exer- 
cise its duty and power to do both without calling upon 
charity? The value and pride in American citizenship 
consists wholly in the fact that the conditions which 
surround it are made superior to and are totally dis- 
similar from, the conditions which exist in every other 



CHARITY. 193 

country. When our circumstances are made to return 
to and fit the conditions that have not witnessed the 
slightest change for ages, and have become so oppres- 
sive that the people of other nations are compelled to 
fly to our shores to live, there is no more value or 
worth in American citizenship than in being a subject 
of the Shah of Persia. Of course, it is a laudable, a 
holy object to assist one's fellow-man, but the idea of 
charity which is "love for one's neighbor," has been 
degraded into soup bones, stale bread and' an occa- 
sional turkey dinner. Our so-called charity organiza- 
tions and spasmodic alleviations of hunger have be- 
come cankerworms that are eating into American 
citizenship and destroying its vitality and manhood. 
They and their congeners, the church corporations, 
with all of their ramifications and subdivisions, are 
killing where they cannot cure. Fully twenty per cent, 
of the most valuable and productive property in the 
United States (made unproductive) belongs to them, 
and the burden of taxation is lifted from their shoul- 
ders and placed upon the already heavily laden shoul- 
ders of the poor, upon the specious plea of benefit to 
the State. The people are the State, and not the king, 
and when charity imposes burdens it certainly does 
not benefit the State. If all of this choice property 
should be placed upon the assessment rolls without 
discrimination, wherein would the poor be injured? 
Poverty is increasing and the difficulties which inter- 
fere with the American citizen in earning his bread 
are becoming more and more unsurmountable. If any 
real good of a general nature has ever been accom- 
plished or can be accomplished by our absurd charity 
organizations with their congeners above mentioned, 
let them demonstrate it and be awarded as much merit 
as is proportionate to the amount of general benefit 
conferred upon the State and no more. Our whole sys- 
tem of private organized charity and morality is a wan- 
ton scheme for the obtaining of money by false pre- 



194 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

tences and is one of the chains attached to the poor to 
drag them down and hold them in a condition of de- 
pendent poverty. They are foreign to our institutions, 
which are opposed to poverty and which declare to the 
world as they did in the beginning that American 
citizens do not exist through charity but by their 
natural forces being permitted full scope. No man 
wants charity in this country, but he does want work. 
Charity is a drag upon his energy, and our system of 
forcing him into so-called morality when the adminis- 
tration of our system of government forces him into 
immorality is a farce. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

EDUCATION. 

Education is quite proper when in the right direction. 

Generally speaking, it is an unsuccessful 

attempt to measure different kinds 

of brains on the same pattern. 

By some radical perversity on the part of nature — ■ 
comparing her works with those enlightened man 
might perform to better advantage were he given the 
opportunities — men, though cast in an identical, orig- 
inal mold, develop into so many varieties of ragged, 
burred edges that they lose all resemblance to the pro- 
duct of the natal matrix. 

To force them back into the original mold and com- 
pel them, by a substantial recasting, to revert to some 
uniformity is the prayerful task of a large body of men 
and women, impressed with the manifold inconsisten- 
cies of nature and penetrated with the earnest belief 
that to them has been awarded the business of curing 
them. 

At first blush it would seem impossible to reconcile 
the wide mental differences observable among men, 
but to the scientific mind of the man or woman of 
natural or acquired genius nothing is impossible. 
Whoever dreamed of steamboats ploughing the seas? 
Talking a thousand miles over a wire, looking 
through a stone wall and flying in the air, were but a 
few years ago regarded as sins against the Creator. 
No, in this age of inventions and discoveries it is fool- 
ish to scout at anything. We have the Scripture for it: 

195 



196 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

''Out of the mouths of babes cometh forth wisdom." 
A truism that is in evidence every day. Have we not 
four-year-old pianists, eight-year-old clergymen, and 
ten-year-old lawyers? 

Ostensibly, no two things are or ever were created 
exactly alike. The peas or beans in the same pod are 
dissimilar, and the two eyes in every human head pos- 
sess distinguishable, diverse characteristics. To 
broaden the idea — a simple, casual comparison of any 
two apparently similar objects immediately presents 
such striking differences that the fact of dissimilarity 
may be considered self-evident. 

Some say that it is a wise provision of nature to 
afhx contradictory indicia to inanimate objects, for if 
they were similar and indistinguishable the power of 
selection by means of the physical senses would be en- 
tirely lost. Thus a broiled lobster and a Welsh rabbit 
would be indistinguishable to the palate, and there 
would not be any difference between a fresh oyster 
and a raw potato. Of course this is pure sensuality on 
the part of those who admire the works of nature, 
which is eliminated by those in pursuit of a higher life 
to whom cornbeef and cabbage is turtle. 

This alleged wisdom of diverse nature is also ap- 
parent in the outward characteristics of mankind, and 
enables men to distinguish each other without a label 
or trade-mark, whereas, were all men alike, it is patent 
that the consequences would be productive of endless 
confusion. 

If it be true, as many persons are inclined to be- 
lieve, that men's physical peculiarities are indices of 
their psychological phenomena, it will explain the rea- 
son of their intellectual differences, but it is in the do- 
main of mental differences that the attempt is being 
made towards a reconciliation or unification of spirit- 
ual inconsistencies, so that all men shall possess similar 
mental attributes as though cast in the same mold. 
That this is true, is evidenced from the standards or 



EDUCATION. 197 

qualities to which all men must conform, and upon 
which they are rigidly measured. 

The object is a laudable one, for it is solely through 
the mental differences that there is so much divergence 
of opinion, whence happen injustice, war and disturb- 
ances of all kinds. By forging the spiritual part of man 
into the same mold the calamities which come upon 
mankind would cease and the millennium begin its 
reign. Had this been better understood, the difference 
of opinion as to the merits of humxan slavery would 
not have brought on the Civil War, for it would have 
been averted by an unanimous opinion one way or the 
other. The continual rending asunder of the business 
of the country in general elections, or its piecemeal 
disintegration through gubernatorial, county, town- 
ship and city elections, is occasioned by differences of 
opinion as to the best manner of managing the affairs 
of the country or of some locality. AH this turmoil 
would be rectified by bringing about unanimity in the 
mental attributes of at least a majority of men. 

It is a pleasure to say that this great desideratum is 
about to be attained through paidology, the new child 
study, which takes a child and methodically trains it 
up to manhood from its birth. By placing children in 
incubators, under air-pumps, aided by hypnotism and 
electricity, varying the treatment with exact equal 
quantities of light, heat and sound, together with the 
use of chemicals, mild doses of narcotics and nervines 
or anti-nervines, as the case may require, in combina- 
tion with trusses and various other mechanical contri- 
vances, it is expected that the plastic physical and men- 
tal characteristics of infants will be restored to some- 
thing like natural uniformity. All these, with sur- 
gical operations on the cranium to allow equal develop- 
ment of the brain, and the suppression of evil instincts, 
will probably result in curing all differences of opinion 
in the race of the future. It is evident, however, that 
a few undeveloped individuals must remain to act in 



ipS THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

the capacity of bell-wethers, otherwise the uniform^ly 
equalized sheep will be left without any certain guide. 

When that happy day arrives there will be no more 
Petrarchs, Flauberts, Handels, St. Pauls, Paganinis, 
Mozarts, Schillers, Alfieris, Pascals, Richelieus, New- 
tons of Swifts, because the terrible disease of epilepsy 
which afflicted them will be v/holly eradicated. 

Nervous tics and St. Vitus dance will not prostrate 
mankind to the extent of creating such sufferers as 
Montesquieu, Buffon, Dr. Johnson, Crebillon, Lom- 
bardini, Campbell, Carducci, Socrates, Napoleon or 
Caesar. 

The taste for alcohol and opium will be substituted 
by that of chewing gum and soft drinks, so that men 
hereafter will not be called upon to mourn the loss of 
any future Coleridge, Thompson, Carew, Sheridan, 
Steele, Addison, Hoffman, Lamb, de Stael, Burns, 
Savage, de Musset, Dupont, Kleist, Caracci, Morland, 
Turner, de Nerval, Dussek, Handel, Gluck, Praga, 
Rovani, Somerville, Webster, Clay, Poe, Seneca, 
Cicero, Catherine of Russia, Isabella, Lady Hamilton, 
Jezebel and Judith. Nor will it occur to the future 
Zenos, Cleanthes, Denys, Lucanuses, Chattertons, 
Raoul Toches, Socrates, to disappear from the midst 
of their sorrowing friends by the felo-de-se route. 

For all such morbid geniuses will cease to exist and 
the microbe liable to create them be destroyed. On the 
contrary, all men will be like peas and beans in a pod, 
turnips and cabbages in the same patch, or sheep in 
the same pasture. All will possess the unvarying ex- 
pression of clams, and have nothing to do except 
practice Delsarteanism and smile agreeably at each 
other. 

Oh! happy day, when suffering shah be no more; 
when the sick shall be made well for the mere wish- 
ing; when sin will cease from sheer inability to commit 
it; when the dreadful pangs of maternity shall be rele- 
gated to incubators or pills, and when the State shall 



EDUCATION. 199 

assume the paternity of its citizens! When — but the 
reader is kindly requested to supply the balance of 
good things likely to happen when paidology shall 
prevail and all of us are governed by cast-iron rules. 

It would ill become an American citizen to decry 
education. That it is meet and just that the youth of 
the nation should receive some kind of an education 
must be conceded; that it is necessary to the happiness 
of the individual, or essential to the safety of the re- 
public, is denied. There are fanatics in the cause 
of education as there are fanatics in everything else, 
but the fanaticism that is furnished with material to 
perpetuate itself is the most dangerous; feeding a 
flame is not the best way to extinguish it. 

Education brings cares and responsibilities which 
the shoulders of many cannot support without sinking, 
and in their despondency they fall into reckless ways 
of living. "To whom much is given, of him much 
shall be required." It opens the way to a knowledge 
man would be better without, and one step taken leads 
to many, and then a final plunge to drown remorse. 
Others again, lifted out of their proper sphere of life, 
the one for which they are best fitted, find nothing 
beyond, and, unable to return, become nothing but 
useless incumbrances upon the face of the earth, 
tramps, vagabonds and frauds, Hving by their wits. 
There are scholars driving mule teams in the moun- 
tains of the great west, better fitted to fill the chairs in 
our great universities than their present occupants. 
Musicians and artists whose genius in music and 
painting would make them masters wander about 
with the sky for their covering and a clod for their 
pillow. Physicians, lawyers, scientists, all men of pro- 
found learning, fill the lowliest positions, contentedly 
waiting for their term of mortal existence to cease. 
The mere knowing how to read is the origin of many 
crimes and immoralities. There is much folly and 
misery in education, much bliss in ignorance. It is 



200 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

true that according to civil rules, ignorance of the law 
will not be received as an excuse for its violation, be- 
cause then everybody would plead ignorance. But the 
moral law excuses sin committed through ignorance 
of the law. "1 had not known sin, but by the law; for 
I had not known lust except the law had said: Thou 
shalt not covet." — Romans, vii., 7, 8. 

On the other branch of the subject. States and na- 
tions have suffered more from education than they 
have been benefited by it. It is more difficult to lead 
an educated man in the direction of a holy life, or keep 
his feet in the way of morality, than it is an uneducated 
man. When Mother Eve bit into the apple she did 
not perceive the fine sarcasm in the serpent's language, 
"Ye shall be as gods," and it is possible that few mod- 
erns see it yet. When a system of education is admin- 
istered for the purpose, in a great measure, of fostering 
and perpetuating prejudice, superstition and bigotry, 
as is too often the case in the United States, it may 
well be doubted whether it is as much of a protection 
to the nation as it is commonly represented. Jerusa- 
lem, Athens, Rome, Arabia and other nations and 
dynasties overflowed with schools of learning, and 
their wise men have left imperishable records of their 
vast attainments, yet none of them were preserved by 
their education. There is nothing left of them but 
broken fragments which still shine with the splendor 
of their knowledge. India still remains, say some, but 
her learning has degenerated into trance mediums, 
clairvoyance, ghosts, devils and hobgoblins, a species 
of "fakirism" in which the silly, fantastic dreams and 
fancies of opium eaters and uneasy women who have 
forgotten the object of their creation, play the prophet 
and darken wisdom with a multitude of words. 

No, education is not what it is pretended. It is th-" 
object and purpose of education and its results that 
make it either valuable or detrimental. It lifts up or 
it casts down. We do not yet educate except for the 



EDUCATION. 201 

mere lust of educating. We have the sohd masonry of 
a foundation, but instead of erecting an edifice com- 
mensurate with that foundation, we put up a ram- 
shackle structure that is shaken in the wind and is 
constantly in need of patching, repairing and bracing 
up. As was said in the beginning of this chapter, we 
are turning out sheep and vegetables, expecting them 
to become lions and oaks, but they remain sheep and 
vegetables. We are playing a game of chance, cast- 
ing dice in the hope that good luck will attend the 
hazard, and we are so entranced with the possible gain 
that we forget or overlook the probable loss. 

What is the purpose of this vast and costly system 
other than the control of over tv^^o hundred millions of 
dollars, expended during about one hundred and forty 
days of each and every year, and which is constantly 
increasing? Is the game worth the candle outside of 
the money there is in it? Let us inquire about it. 

It can not be admitted that the money in it is the 
sole object, although it certainly amounts to a suffi- 
ciently enormous sum to make it one of its objects in 
these days 6i gold greed, and we therefore fall in with 
the idea commonly received that it is the object and 
duty of the State to aid its youth in preparing for their 
life struggle, and to raise them up to the standard of 
good citizenship. This is all very fine and laudable, so 
far as it goes, and withal, quite nice and sentimental, 
but what next? There is nothing next. Stopped on 
the very threshold, they are turned back, thrown out 
to struggle for themselves. The great and bounden 
duty of the State stops at that and cares little what 
happens afterwards. If it be the business and duty 
of the State to play the parent at all, it is its business 
and duty to keep to that role until its youth are safe. 
It should go further and see that they have opportun- 
ities to apply their education without compehing them 
to become barroom loafers, tramps, paupers or thieves. 



202 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

There are few avenues open to them, and even those 
avenues are fast disappearing. 

This is the great fault with this hue and cry after 
education. It provides nothing after the process of 
education is completed. A youth must eat and drink, 
have clothing and a place to sleep. True, he may be- 
come a newsboy, get a turkey dinner on Christmas and 
Thanksgiving day with a great flourish of trumpets 
and hurricane of pious words, sleep in a doorway and 
feed on the memory of the turkey dinners the rest of 
the year. It is not the few successful ones that are to 
be looked to as the grand results of our system of 
paternal education, it is in the multitude who do not 
succeed that we must find its defects. 

The time is not far off when the problem of educa- 
tion w^ll present a graver and more serious aspect 
than sentiment and misguided sympathy affords it. 
Everything is now of a roseate hue and we are 
blinded with the effulgence of our own goodness. 
We do not see the great army of over twenty millions 
of youth between the ages of five and eighteen years, 
an army constantly increasing in numbers, that will 
come knocking at the doors of our legislative halls, 
crying: ''You have educated us, now give us work." 
Then, legislatures will be at their wit's end for an 
answer, but the question will have to be answered Vv^ith- 
out delay. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE RIGHT TO LIVE. 

The resurrection of this fundamental but forgotten 

right. Also the removal of certain doubts 

as to its efUcacy. 

''Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;" that is 
the usual theoretical classification of our inherent, in- 
alienable rights. 

The rights specified by the people in the constitu- 
tions are not absolute rights, but political rights; a 
misunderstanding of this has often been the cause of 
much trouble that might have been avoided. Many 
a man has lost his life upon the rriistaken supposition 
that he could do as he pleased. 

The law may take away a man's life, restrain his lib- 
erty, or deny him the right to pursue happiness if he 
do it in a manner unpleasant to others. A man may 
become a nuisance, for instance, while exercising his 
rights. 

When the law deprives a citizen of his right to live, 
it does so as a penalty for the commission of some 
heinous crime like murder. Some of the States of 
the Union, however, have abolished capital punish- 
ment for various reasons, while others maintain it up- 
on the wording of holy writ: "An eye for an eye and a 
tooth for a tooth," a literal interpretation, which is re- 
futed by the learned Englishman, John Seldon, who 
says: " 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 
That does not mean that if I put out another man's 
203 



204 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

eye, therefore I must lose one of my own (for what is 
he better for that?), though this be commonly received; 
but it means I shall give him what satisfaction an eye 
shah be judged to be worth." The Oriental method 
is to make the punishment fit the crime. A practice 
which prevailed when the Scripture was written and 
which still prevails among Oriental nations. 

It is the lex talionis, or law of revenge, but the idea 
with us was not only punishment, but to make it 
operate as a deterrent, a punishment that will strike 
terror into the hearts of would-be murderers and stay 
their hands. The practical result of this idea has not 
proved as successful as its advocates hoped and its 
use as a punishment is now put upon the ground of 
good of the State. The practice in the State of Kan- 
sas seems to be much more effective than elsewhere. 
In that State capital punishment has never been 
abolished, but it is never inflicted. The convicted 
criminal is duly sentenced to death, but the Court 
does not fix any date, that being arranged at the dis- 
cretion of the Governor, who never really fixes any 
date. It means a life imprisonment with the death 
penalty held over the convict in terrorem. In defer- 
ence to theoretical science the electric chair has been 
adopted by Ohio and New York as a superior means 
of taking off a murderer. Such a means of execution 
has been condemned by many as cruel on account of 
the intense, although momentary agony it produces 
on the body of the victim, our lav/ not being enforced 
by way of revenge, and painful agony not being a de- 
terrent to those who do not feel it ; it is driving a stake 
through the body of a suicide. If the law will de- 
stroy human life, say they, let it do so in a painless 
manner, hence many substitutes have been offered, 
one particularly being sulphuretted hydrogen or il- 
luminating gas let into a closed cell upon" the victim as 
he sleeps. In this manner the convict passes away 
into the unknown without pain and without a struggle. 



THE RIGHT TO LIVE. 205 

It is difficult though to get rid entirely of the idea and 
practices of the old Spanish Inquisition. 

In olden times the right of the subject to live was 
suspended, and he was put to death on the slightest 
provocation, even for soliciting alms, as was the law 
during the reign of Henry VIII. of England. So 
heresy was punishable by the most horrid forms of 
death the executioners could devise. Robbery and 
crimes against money and property, as well as crimes 
against the inviolability of women, were visited with 
capital punishment. In the early days of the history 
of this country the Puritans burned those whom they 
were pleased to term ''witches," and in our own days 
a soldier may be shot for desertion or for sleeping on 
his post. These latter punishments are inflicted more 
for the purpose of preserving discipline than as actual 
punishments. Napoleon, however, never inflicted the 
extreme penalty unless the desertion was in the face of 
the enemy. In the case of war, human life entirely 
loses its value and two opposing armies kill and maim 
without stint, victory going to the side which kills the 
most men, or which displays its ability to kill the most, 
in which event peace is patched up and a money or 
territorial compensation awarded the victor, the same 
going to secure some advantage to those who re- 
mained in the rear. As in former times it was deemed 
justifiable to put men to death for the benefit of their 
souls, so now in modern times it is common to kilt in 
war for the purposes of national trade, or for the good 
of morality, but in the latter case the putting to death 
is by proxy, to wit, the subjects or citizens instead of 
the principals, rulers or moralists. 

Aside from war; however, which, like necessity, 
knows no law, it cannot be doubted, politically speak- 
ing, that every citizen's life, liberty and pursuit of hap- 
piness must yield to the demands of the State, but even 
then, Hke the exercise of the right of eminent domain, 
none of those rights can be violated except by due 



2o6 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. ; 

process of law. The only cases where due process of 
law is omitted and the arbitrary rule applied are in vio- 
lations of municipal laws or ordinances, particularly in ' 
violations of what are known as "Sunday laws," in \ 
which cases the operation of the constitution is sus- ; 
pended, the citizen then coming under the "divine \ 
right," being a remnant of the witch burning idea of | 
the Puritans. As between citizens themselves, how- i 
ever, the right to live is absolute, and every man's life i 
stands upon an equality, whether that of an Apollo or 
a cripple, a rich man or a poor one, a crone or a beau- , 
tiful maiden, an infant or an adult. | 

The theory of this right is based upon the fact that \ 
man is not responsible for his birth and should, there- ; 
fore, be accountable to no one for his life, except, as i 
before stated, the good of the State is involved, but in i 
that case the right is said to be lost by reason of post * 
natal acts. i 

Caesar, however, is always sitting upon a throne j 
everywhere; in a monarchy, a despotism, a republic or ! 
a band of brigands. There is no difference, per se, 
between the Caesar of Russia, England, China or the 
United States, except in the case of the latter, he is j 
more tractable, because of the tremendous power j 
ready to spring up against him if his subjects' rights I 
and privileges are tampered with. Perhaps Caesar, j 
personally, would not be so dangerous and such a i 
bugbear to his subjects and citizens were it not for the j 
ill advisers surrounding him, for it has often happened i 
here, as well as in the wilds of Asia and the jungles of \ 
India and Africa, that the hfe blood of citizens has ; 
been poured out like water, not in any war, but in ■ 
deference to capital in its conflicts with labor, and on | 
account of a mere difference of opinion, as also in the | 
exercise of the right of American citizens to assemble ; 
and secure a redress of their grievances. As was said ! 
in another chapter, the life of an Egyptian slave was j 
as nothing, and in our sister repubUc of Mexico the \ 



THE RIGHT TO LIVE. . 207 

extinction of peons causes no comment. They are 
mere incumbrances in the way of progress and it is 
easy to fill their places with other wretches of like use- 
lessness. The same thing has been observed in the 
case of our Indians, who are put to death on the 
slightest provocation. Their savage nature, the 
wrongs that have been perpetrated upon them and 
their race, and the revengeful spirit and desire for 
redress which a white man would be ashamed not to 
possess, all go for naught when it becomes necessary 
to get rid of them as incumbrances in the way of some 
civilized and thrifty cattle baron, wheat grower or 
hustling real estate agent. But the real excuse for 
this is and must be civilization. But that excuse car- 
ried too far will react. The American citizen has 
hopes and ambitions that neither the Egyptian, Aztec 
nor Mexican possesses nor could ever hope to possess. 
The slave works, eats and sleeps and waits for death. 
The American has been educated in the belief that he 
has a birthright, that he has certain rights which the 
law, the officials and his fellow-citizens will respect, 
and that if they do not, that he is entitled to a remedy 
to compel that respect. When that remedy fails him 
and he sees himself at the mercy of elements liable to 
take away his rights and oppress him, he seeks to pro- 
tect himself as his education teaches him, and if he is 
massacred it shows one of two things: First, that the 
government is not strong enough to protect him and 
therefore kills him as the easiest way out of the diffi- 
culty, or, second, that there are times when, under the 
pretence of public safety, the blood of citizens may be 
spilled by their fellow-citizens without process of law, 
regardless of the right to live, an acknowledgment of 
the doctrine of lynch law, which is a two-edged sword, 
for the public safety does not concern one class of citi- 
zens more than another. 

Our forefathers did not cut loose from a monarchi- 



2o8 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

cal system of government with any intention of re- 
turning to it again. 

What care the administrators of the affairs of this 
government, whether National or State, for the rights 
of individuals? In the little Dutch republic that amuses 
us so much because of its littleness, the ruler's oath is 
to protect the rights of individual citizens as well as to 
protect the State. In the United States the official 
oath is to support the Constitution, an instrument 
which declares the rights of the individual citizen to 
be pre-eminent. But in the fulfillment of that oath, 
in the carrying out of the objects and purposes for 
which it is exacted, the individual is absorbed, lost, in 
what officials are pleased to call "common good, pub- 
lic welfare, greatest good to the greatest number," 
and other high sounding terms that are the clap-trap 
of kings and personal governments. 

Time was when an American citizen could begin at 
the bottom rung of the ladder and work his way to the 
top, but if he attempts it now, or discovers a means 
of rising above penury, he is crushed down and out of 
existence by aggregations of capital known as "trusts," 
which will not permit him to sell a spool of thread, a 
pint of milk, a soup bone or a jackknife except at their 
regulated prices. Coal oil is cheap at ten cents per 
gallon considering that it used to be forty cents; and 
where one could get only six or ten pounds of sugar 
for a dollar, he can now get twenty pounds for the 
same money, yea, even for a silver dollar that is worth 
only forty-five cents. A most prosperous condition, 
and the great and amazing part of it is that there are 
so many who cannot get either coal oil or sugar at 
even that low price, though everybody had enough 
and to spare when it was forty cents a gallon and ten 
cents per pound respectively. We can now travel 
miles and miles for a mere nickel on our beneficent 
transit lines, where before it would have cost us a 
dollar or more. What has afforded us these and vari- 



THE RIGHT TO LIVE. 209 

ous otKer blessings? Why, vast aggregations of capi- 
tal called "trusts and corporations," which have ab- 
sorbed the individual, crushed him out of existence, 
reduced him to poverty and cringing penury, all for 
the ''common good, public welfare." Reader, do you 
find any "common good, public welfare" elsewhere 
than in the pockets of the managers of the trusts and 
corporations? They are the "rich beggars" referred 
to in the chapter on "Charity," and we literally walk 
over each other in our anxiety to give them otir 
nickels, and then v/e go home and wonder where we 
are going to get our next meal. 

They are the destroyers of competition, the specu- 
lators that prevent labor from producing money lest 
they have a little less. In them we can see the plain 
reason why no man can rise, and why it is that capital 
has become the producer of labor and holds labor in 
the hollow of its hand, squeezing and crushing it down 
to the lowest notch possible to maintain life. 

The "Right to Live?" Say, rather, that it is the 
right to exist only, and Vv^hen the toiler, enfeebled by 
inadequate nourishment, and his mind affected by tne 
dazzling promises of a "Prosperity" that never comes 
to him, becomes incapacitated to earn even the pittance 
thrown at him as if he were a beggar and a slave, the 
sole right left him is: The Right to Die. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE GLORY OF THE KING. 

"Divine Right" and "Public Good" seem to have 

bridged the gulf between them and to be now 

hobnobbing like old friends. 

The fields of the "Old World" are strewn with the 
bones of humanity that went down to death, with 
"Long live the King" upon their dying lips, and the 
pages of history teem with the desperate deeds oi 
valor performed by heroes whose names will live and 
resound throughout the earth until time shall be no 
more. The agonizing cries of heart-broken widows 
and orphans have time and again rent the heavens in 
vain for relief from their miseries. „ All for what pur- 
pose? For the glory of the king; to bolster up some 
decrepit, selfish monarch, or, at the call "to arms," to 
rush into the jaws of death to sustain a system of 
government, which when made strong and powerful 
by the blood of its supporters, forgets them and be- 
comes more tyrannical than ever. 

All the wars and struggles of the human race since 
the beginning have been undertaken upon the theory 
of "public good," when they have only had for their 
real object the private good of the few. The general 
welfare, the public good, the honor of the nation, the 
glory of the king, have always been the specious bases 
of all patriotism, and the destruction of the individual. 
When contending armies are hurled at each other, and 
their bones are shivered as glass, the victory is 
awarded to the leaders, and the king receives the ova- 

210 



THE GLORY OF THE KING. 211 

tions of the multitude who forget their dead in his 
glory and renown. Forgotten are the bleaching bones 
of the individuals, by all except the jackals and the 
vultures, while stately monuments are erected to the 
glory of the king and dedicated to the greatness of the 
nation. 

In this country we have no king, no Caesar but of 
our own creation and selection, and whatever ills may 
betide us, they are all of our own doing. Xhat is the 
naked theory of our system. In practice we feed the 
Caesar we create upon such strong meats, even upon 
our own life blood, that he grows greater than his 
creators, and in his pride of strength falls back upon 
the same old idea of "good of the public," welfare of 
the nation," etc., etc., and after his car of triumph fol- 
low the same weary slaves, dragging their feeble limbs 
and applauding the king. They revel in the loss of 
their individual liberties in the great cause of general 
good, public welfare, etc., it never occurring to their 
minds that the ones to be helped are the ones who 
need help. 

There never was a more entirely misconstrued, mis- 
conceived and misapplied theory than that of public 
welfare. When the infant Colonies cut away from the 
oppressive administration of an English king, 
sloughed off the ulcers and barnacles of the ''divine 
right," and established a new, a novel system of gov- 
ernment, free from the pernicious effects of the mon- 
archical form of government, and based that new and 
novel S3^stem upon equal rights and certain inherent 
privileges, it never occurred to them that we could 
ever return to the system which they shed their best 
blood to throw off. Had they thought so, they would 
never have struggled and shed their blood to get rid 
of it. To them the rights of every individual citizen 
were as sacred as the rights of all. The rule of the 
majority was accepted, because that rule was in accord 
with the rights of each and every citizen as guaranteed 



212 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

by the organic law, and there was enough grace in 
the hearts of the ruHng majority to see to it that its 
rule should not oppress, but govern and not domin- 
ate. The rights of the individual were guarded, and 
the individual citizen protected without resort to the 
enervating power of paternalism. The segregated 
rights of individuals were aggregated into public wel- 
fare without the destruction of the individual. 

But how is it now? The reader has but to open his 
eyes to see. The greed for gold, the bawd of ambition 
and the tawdry vanities of the ''divine right" have 
brought us back to the European idea of public good, 
public welfare and, as once said a prominent citizen, 
"The people be damned." Go where you please in 
Europe and in the shadov^^ of her institutions of learn- 
ing, including political econom.y; her palaces of art; 
her laboratories of science, and among her stately 
monuments and grand architecture, lying prone in the 
dust and dirt of the streets, living upon the garbage 
thrown from the heavily laden tables of "public good," 
are multitudes of ''Lazzaroni" (Lazarus, indeed), who 
raise their faces out of the dust and shout: "Long live 
the King!" as he passes by in his gilded coach, sur- 
rounded by gorgeously equipped troopers with drawn 
sworBs ready to cut down the rabble if they dare shout 
anything else. 

But we in this country have not yet reached that ab- 
ject condition of poverty and slavery. We have no 
king, but we tighten our belts and stay our empty 
stomachs with hope as we follow in the trains of our 
petty kings, our wire pullers, our bosses, the evil ad- 
visers who stand behind the mythical throne of a 
shadowy, intangible Caesar, of which they are the 
substance. A king thinks nothing of the ragged in- 
carnations he rides through with his train. He is not 
ashamed of it, for is he not the king by divine right, 
and has he not the poor always with him? With us, 
though, the public good demands that our lazzaroni 



THE GLORY OF THE KING. 213 

be hunted Into holes and corners, penned up in hot 
or cold, bare rooms, in back streets, curtained out of 
sight by the veil of general welfare. Off the public 
places they are driven by peace officials, so that when 
Caesar, their Caesar, rides through with his jingling 
chains and gilded coach, surrounded by his toadies, his 
eyes shall not be offended with their misery and their 
extended hands, nor his ears assailed with their cries 
for "backsheesh." If they annoy him with their pe- 
titions for a redress of their grievances they are sent 
to prison as disorderly persons or prohibited from vot- 
ing at the primary election. 

Our petty political kings are not paternal, that is a 
relic of barbarism, despotism. A despot, the viceger- 
ent of God, would cast handfuls of small coin among 
his paupers and take pleasure in their scrambles to ob- 
tain possession of them, but we give our coins to those 
who already have much, to be distributed as their 
whims, bigotry or heartlessness may dictate. Verily, 
to him who hath shall be given and from him who 
hath not shall be taken even that which he hath. 

The shallow pated foreigner, fresh from the corrupt 
courts that maintain their splendor out of the life blood 
of the poor, and caU their fatness "public welfare," 
comes to our shores and our petty kings fall down and 
worship him. He is wined and dined, toasted and 
feted and carried about in triumph, to see our stately 
monuments, magnificent palaces, and returns to his 
native land to tell of our magnificence. The curtain 
is not withdrawn from before the skeleton in our 
closet and he does not see our back streets, our care- 
fully concealed paupers nor their miseries. That ulcer 
is covered up, but it is there, and it is the public good, 
the general welfare, that keeps it there. When some 
^enlightened foreigner, acquainted with human nature, 
suspects the same conditions as in his own country, 
and finds them, he tells us boldly that we are no bet- 
ter than anybody else. For this he is denounced by 



214 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

a servile press, as a liar, a fraud and a calumniator and 
even his moral character attacked as is that of all those 
who speak the truth. We see it, however, every day, 
and we are not liars, nor detractors, nor calumniators; 
moreover, our personal character has nothing to do 
with disproving the facts. We are not enemies of 
progress, for we accept the telephone, electric lights, 
steam engines, sugar, coal oil, and other things too 
numerous to mention, as evidences of our prosperity 
and of our greatness. We keep ofif the grass, do not 
pluck flowers that are going to waste for want of 
plucking, abstain from spitting upon the floors of public 
conveyances, do not drink beer on Sunday and prefer 
starvation to buying bread on that day; in our human- 
ity we preserve the lives of cats in our back yards, 
that make our lives a burden; we submit to being run 
over and mangled and maimed by the progressive 
juggernauts of rapid transit; we toil and sweat to raise 
money for taxes and licenses to avoid going to jail for 
not paying them. In fine, we exhibit all the admira- 
tion possible for our progress and submit to the most 
unparalleled exactions, squeezings and robberies, for 
the good of the public and for the general welfare, but 
the poor are still with us, which is the sigh in the 
heart of every king, and the vaporish lament belched 
up to heaven from the over-fed paunch of the hypo- 
critical divine. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

MODERN MARTYRS. 

Showing how there are others besides the Roman 
Emperors who can manufacture martyrs. 

'Tis not alone to those who shed their precious 
blood, whose saintly limbs are racked and flesh torn 
because they keep the faith preached unto them, that 
shall be awarded the crown of martyrdom. Our mod- 
ern graves are filled with victims and others yawn for 
those whom living tyrants send to death in pain and 
torture. 

The Christian martyr little recked of his dismem- 
bered shell; to him the rack and thumbscrew and the 
tiger's maw were welcome helps up to the great shin- 
ing throne, and to his uplifted eyes appeared the out- 
stretched arms of Christ and his brother martyred 
saints. He lay upon the flaming fagots as upon a bed 
of roses, and the smoke of his consuming flesh was 
gateful incense to his dying nostrils. The blood, in- 
deed, of the early martyrs was the seed of the church, 
which, upspringing in a fertile soil, soon choked the 
weeds of persecution. 

In the bright dawn of civilization ,the dark, steam- 
ing haunts of persecution were exposed to public exe- 
cration and the foul instruments of torture and mur- 
der laid away as curiosities of human cruelty to man. 
The fires beneath the horrid cauldrons of boiling pitch 
and the human gridiron were quenched by the plente- 
ous rain of civilizing mercy. And now we are flat- 

215 



2i6 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. | 

tered by the thought that none must suffer for opin- \ 

ion's sake and that the rays of a new century's sun ] 

just now about to rise, cast halos around men free - 

from mental slavery. ; 

The pangs inflicted upon the flesh that racked the j 

limbs and cracked the joints of him who clung to j 

Christ and died for his opinion's sake, are only dreams j 

and seen but through the dim and musty records of j 
the past, for martyrdom is over. True, the martyrdom 

of the shell, but what of that inflicted upon the spirit? j 

There is a multitude of graves already filled I say, and i 

others yawn for those who suffer and who die for poor > 

opinion's sake, and that, too, by a martyrdom more \ 

cruel and more sore than from hard iron hooks or boil- ; 

ing pitch or broiling fire. An agony that the Chris- i 

tian martyr felt not, for his spirit was stronger than | 

his flesh and weakened not. In his soul the image ] 

of the crown of victory soothed his pain and changed ] 

his bitter torments to delights. But now the torture \ 

is that of the soul and nothing brings it comfort. No 1 

room is there for hope or crown, for well he knows \ 
that after all is o'er a dismal, deep and dire hell opes 

wide its portals to receive his weary spirit. "Who kills ■ 

my body saves my soul." This said an ancient saint, j 

but he of modern times protests the body must be j 

saved though perish human soul. \ 

In the heart hunger of a woman scorned for other , 

love by him who gained her maiden soul and took the ' 

all she freely gave, there is an agony that sometimes ; 

drives to death unhallowed and that yields no corporal j 

pangs. ^ : 

A babe, for whose sweet sake its mother bore her I 

tragic travails with contented smiles, torn from that ] 

mother's breast by tyrant law that wounds but does ; 

not heal, affords that mother torture worse than if she < 

suffered death to save her infant's days. J 

Two hearts bound fast together in love's thralls, \ 

affinities that correspond, are thrust asunder by a ' 



MODERN MARTYRS. 21; i 

i 
keen relentless sword wielded by stern conventional- ' 
ity and bitter, sullen selfishness and jealousy. The 
heads of those who love, but love too late to escape 
the meshes of a slavish net, are wound about with sor- • 
row's mantle, and in their hearts are planted germs of | 
dark despair which^ sprouting up like noxious weeds, i 
soon choke the avenues of a joyous life. i 

In the soft susceptibility of youthful innocence, with i 
a heart unripened to the knowledge of its destiny, nay, \ 
caught, perhaps in some rebound, the life, the soul, ; 
mayhap, is caught within the meshes of its own inno- \ 
cence and then is cast out by unholy custom to linger \ 
on and suffer till death ends all its misery. : 

What of the man who, moved by high impulse, as- i 
pires to things which circumstances or his friends hold | 
in suspense beyond his reach? The struggles of his : 
soul to reach and realize the ideal in his heart become 
the agonies of death as time fast passing leaves him 
dangling o'er his grave in middle age or riper years ' 
with hopes all shattered, and his soul gorged with de- j 
spair, and thus he falls down into oblivion without re- | 
gret. That man has suffered martyrdom, for ail ■ 
around him, rank incompetence betrays the need of his i 
superior mind, yet is he cast aside by jealousy and \ 
proud conceit of those who fear that his ascendency ■ 
will injure them and cast them on the garbage heap of ; 
useless things. 

When the dew is on the grass in early morn the son j 
of toil takes up his weary burden and lays it not down 
again until the sun has withdrawn his light, and then i 
he drops it on a threshold of misery and famine. Per- i 
haps to wrest from him the uttermost farthing's worth j 
of the priceless labor which is his all, he is still further 
burdened lest he fail to earn his martyr's crown. May- j 
hap, from constant toil he turns aside awhile to ease ' 
himself and those he loves, and draw them all ud to a \ 
higher plane, but the very efforts made but drag him ! 
lower down, as one who treads the fatal sands, until ] 



2i8 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 






he sinks, and nothing leaves to mark the spot where j 
he Hes buried with his hopes. 

The poor who struggle for the right to live, in their j 
upheaving, fermenting wretchedness soon run against ] 
and disturb the calm serenity and discretionless maze i 
of absurd, arrant law, and then within a prison cell are 'j 
left to meditation to find reasons why they venture j 
e^^^en to draw their breath and live. They cannot say 
with Julian, casting up to heaven a clutch of mortal 
blood: "Galilean, thou hast conquered," for all is 
dark to them, and their poor, united brains know not 
the reasons for the hasty judgment entered up against 
them, nor can their dull minds grasp the new con- 
struction put upon the mansuetude of Christ. A 
pauper, tramp and vagabond, nor hath he means to 
live, so he is locked up in a shivering cell with famine 
as his aid, to teach him suffering, and to roll up to a fat 
amount ofhcial emoluments. 

'Tis writ that whoso's charged with crime, the same 
shall all his innocence retain, until some man shall 
come and prove his crime; but hounded on by fawn- 
ing, servile and senile press, his guilt is proved before 
he comes to trial, and even then, a facile, journalistic 
court and prejudged jury of men not his peers convict 
him from the mouths of lovv^ born, perjured spies and 
pimps, who glory in their infamous renown. May- 
hap, by methods worse than rack and thumbscrew, 
he is beseiged by dull clods in uniform, who goad him 
on until his mind gives way and babbles out "confes- 
sion" to relieve his oppressed mind, the which is taken 
by the courts on mere hearsay, as gospel truth, and on 
it send the victim to his crown. And so he dies, op- 
pressed unto the end, but when his martyred bones 
have long since tumbled into dust, and truth and inno- 
cence at last appear, the wolfish press that sent them 
down, raise up their pious voices horror-struck 'gainst 
facile, senile law, and bloody executioners, and strive 



MODERN MARTYRS. 219 

to snatch the crown of martyrdom from ofif their vic- 
tim's head. 

The poor, frail body, helpless in disease, looks up 
with hopeful eyes to him who bears a sheepskin of his 
worth and merit, and swallows down adulterated drugs 
that wrench his body, and at last his soul set free. Or 
else, perchance, is practiced on in some hyena's den 
by surgeon's knife, before a crowd of boys and girls 
to whom the law forbids the doing of the same upon 
the body of a soulless dog, and thence is hurried 
piecemeal into some nameless tomb, his skin to serve 
as pocketbooks for the rich, his bones as buttons for 
the proud. Too poor perhaps, if he survive, to be at 
care of those he loves, the sick man's carried to some 
public ward, to there become the prey of brutal tip-fed 
nurse, v/ho knoweth naught of mercy to the one who 
hath not coin or scrip within his purse. 

Upon our streets are those whose chief employment 
is a constant living death. Driven from pillar to post 
and cast into a filthy cell, mid ribaldry and curse, or 
haled up before some arrant court, through crowded 
streets, by those who tread upon the air of notoriety, 
and aim to purify by rendering more impure, and mur- 
der mercy through their fiendish lack of it, these poor 
soiled doves are held up spectacles, as were the ancient 
martyrs of the Roman populace, and go down into the 
dark valley with curses on their lips against the cruel 
system that doth send them there. Meanwhile the 
author of their woes, the maker of their crown, sits 
down among the sanctified and thanks the Lord that 
he is not like them. 

The poor, dull brain, best fitted for a yoke, perhaps 
some blue-eyed country maid, well fitted for her 
sphere, is crammed with education, art and other stuff 
that puffs her up with pride beyond her scope of hand- 
ling, and when refined in the crucible of crazy schemes 
to lift the so-called downtrodden, and the lowly, until 



220 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

ashamed of her former humble stale, her patrons cast 
her on the stormy sea of Ufe to drown. 

But worst of all the cruel tortures that on man are 
heaped, and by devices that would shame a Nero, and 
bring a blush of shame to the hide-bound cheek of 
Torquemada, are those employed beneath the guise of 
modern piety. The sects, as various as the sands be- 
side the sea, bar from the cooling shades and bubbling 
springs of Paradise all those who do not stand be- 
fore their altar rails and mask hypocrisy with religion's 
cloak. Dragged from one hell by one sect, the strug- 
gling sinner finds himself into a worse one cast by 
some competing church. 'Tis "Here, Lord; there. 
Lord," that he hears resounding on all sides, but when 
he closely looks he finds no Lord at all, and only the 
Golden Calf they worship all. Seeking for what will 
bring some surcease from his rounds of sin, the 
wretched seeker after peace and truth discovers all at 
swords' points and in strife contentious, their pious 
jaws with hatred, calumny and slander wagging. No 
peace finds he in internecine strife, so overboard he 
casts them all and guides himself by such light as he 
finds within his mind and heart. Yet is he made a 
martyr of, for damned he surely is because he does not 
bear the proper brand, nor is his name pew-labeled 
anywhere, vdthout which he is told he cannot pass 
through heaven's gate. 

Why need we multiply examples when the modern 
world is overrun with Neros, Torquemadas and Calu- 
gulas? Mankind is tortured from his cradle to his 
grave, by those who, holding that on earth there is no 
peace, make good their doctrine by the foul disturb- 
ance of it. His spirit troubled and his soul dismayed, 
at home, abroad and everywhere. His comings and 
his goings watched, and pitfalls, nets and traps spread 
for his wandering feet. Deceived, betrayed and robbed 
on every side; his privacy invaded and his home 



MODERN MARTYRS. 221 

charms dispelled; the choicest feelings of his heart helcl 
up before a mocking world; his purity denied, his 
motives misconstrued; beset by malice, petty ven- 
geance, greed and biting scorn; o'erwhelmed in a sea 
of envious, jealous hate, what is there left for modern 
man but martyrdom and a martyr's crown? 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

SABBATISM. 

Liberty of conscience does not mean that some are at 
liberty to choke others into their way of thinking. 

''And he said unto them, The Sabbath was 
made for man and not man for Sabbath.' " 
—St. Mark ii., 28. 

Of recent years an old disease has broken out afresh 
in various localities, which, although not epidemic, 
frets and afflicts the body politic with a variety of dis- 
orders that threaten its speedy dissolution unless quar- 
antined. It is, moreover, intermittent in its appear- 
ance, and is frequently attended with violent par- 
oxysms, resembling the symptoms accredited to hy- 
drophobia, which, according to experts not already 
afflicted with it in its incipient stages, bids fair to de- 
stroy whatever of vitality is left in the political sys- 
tem. The most appropriate name by which this er- 
ratic disease may be designated is "Sabbatism," and 
it can easily be recognized from the virulence of its 
mental frenzy and intellectual delirium. 

The pages of holy writ and the teachings of tradition 
disclose the fact that the Almighty held in his own 
hands the lash which descended upon the backs of 
those who violated his commands, and he maintained 
as his own exclusive prerogative the right to inflict 
penalties for infractions of his law. Hence we find 
him excluding our first parents from the violated gar- 
den; setting a mark upon Cain lest some man should 
222 



SABBATISM. 223 I 

take the law into his own hands and kill him. It was ! 
He who opened the floodgates of heaven and drowned ; 
a villainous people; cast a consuming rain of fire upon I 
corrupt Sodom and Gomorrah; transformed Lot's : 
over-inquisitive better half into commercial chloride 
of sodium. He rolled back the waters of the Red Sea 1 
like unto two walls and sent them crashing together i 
again to swallow up the hosts of Pharoah, who sought ! 
to replevy their goods, wares and merchandise from I 
the thieving Hebrews; prevented Moses from entering j 
the promised land; loosed the dumb tongue of the un- ■ 
ruly Balaam's ass; hanged Absalom by the hair on ! 
the limb of a tree; raised up a whale to swallow the | 
shirking Jonah; stayed the course of the fiery sun to 
enable Joshua to exterminate his enemies; used Sam- 
son as his agent to beat common sense into the heads : 
of his enemies with the jawbone of an ass; affiicted I 
Job with boils and other inconveniences; blew the sur- i 
prising horn that felled the walls of Jericho; opened j 
the heart of David to repentance after he had de- i 
moralized Uriah's wife and assassinated her husband. 
It was the Lord who opened Solomon's eyes to wis- 
dom after his troublous experience as the original ■ 
founder of the Mormon dynasty; tumbled the walls of 1 
Jerusalem about the ears of its citizens; sent bears out 
of an adjacent wood to devour the impious infants who 
jeered the prophet's baldness. It was his finger that 
wrote upon the wall at the Belshazzar banquet the 
words that prepared the way for a new system of gov- 
ernment worse than the old one. He instigated Jael 
to nail Sisera's head to the ground; cast Jezebel to the 
dogs; sent the birds to feed his starving prophet, man- 
na and quail to the hungry children of Israel in the 
wilderness; struck water from Horeb's rock; sent John 
the Baptist and then his own Beloved Son to redeem 
his faithless w^ards and put it in their hearts to crucify 
him to make good his fore-ordained word. 

In all of the smallest details of human affairs, the 



224 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

Lord himself appeared as the Supreme legislator, ju- 
dicial tribunal and executive, as well as ministerial 
officer. His agents and all of the machinery and 
paraphernalia to provide compulsory observance of 
his commands never had other than advisory powers 
and were not permitted to go beyond mere prophecies 
and threats of what would be inflicted upon a stiff- 
necked people if they turned a deaf ear to their prog- 
nostications, and there is only one instance where a 
prophet took the law into his own hands. Moses 
coming down out of the mountain saw the golden 
calf, and the people dancing around about it. Then 
his anger waxed hot ''and he cast the tables out of his 
hands and brake them beneath the mount" and made 
the Israelites swallow the ashes of the golden calf 
which the high priest made to accommodate himself 
to popular clamor and gratify public opinion, and the 
golden ashes are still in their veins. 

But in these modern times it is assumed that the 
Lord is withholding his strong hand, that his right 
arm has lost its cunning and that he has forgotten to 
enforce the penalties for the violations of laws which 
his hand wrote upon the stony tablets, and so his pres- 
ent prophets usurp unto themselves his exclusive pre- 
rogatives, and not content with enacting the role of 
prophets, whose province was to warn and threaten, 
play false ones by enforcing the divine law as they 
construe it, and punish its violations with their own 
hands. 

They blow their trumpets, but the walls of Jericho 
still stand; they hold up their hands to the sky, but 
the sun goes on its course; they expose their baldness 
to jeering multitudes, but the bears rush hot out to 
devour the ribalds. They even venture to cast pearls 
before swine, but the hogs turn not to rend them. 
Even asses speak to them,- but they do not hearken. 
They let their hair grow long like that of Absalom, 
but they are not caught in trees; they rush about the 



SABBATISM. 225 

streets of our modern Jerusalems crying 'Voe! woe! 
woe!" but there is no woe but that following upon the 
heels of their own misgovernment. Many of them 
cast themselves down before dogs, but the dogs flee 
in dismay unable to stomach them. They rave, rant, 
storm and threaten and their breaths are rank with 
foul calumniations, vituperations and villainous abuse, 
but the stars remain in their places; the firmament 
does not waver and the earth remains firm upon its 
foundations. Nothing comes of their frantic exer- 
tions, so they deem the Lord careless in his duties 
and shoulder his burden themselves, and through the 
aid of Caesar and the civil law think they make them- 
selves true prophets by their ridiculous and absurd 
punishments inflicted on those who turn a deafened 
ear to them. In the police reports and annals of crime 
they find the fulfilment of their futile prophecies. 

Living in the mouldering ruins of the past, shiver- 
ing upon the barren rock of fulfilled law, they cannot 
see that the law has been fulfilled, and that man shall 
not be saved by gall and vinegar, but by honey and 
mansuetude.. They live mid dreams of some future 
kingdom, like the Jews, who still hope for the coming 
of their king. They refuse to pay tribute to Caesar 
and demand that Caesar pay tribute to them. 

What is this Sunday, for Sabbath it is not, on which 
to buy or sell, or act or do, hinges the fate of man's 
immortal soul? 'Tis but a mere convention, sumptu- 
ary law, to force man to accept some unloved thing 
on pretence that 'tis better for him to accept; a cycle, 
period, one-seventh of anything. 

By wholesale profanation of the divine law which 
on the stone the hand of God first writ, man changed 
the day from that on which God rested from creative 
toil unto the first on which he first began. Whose 
change and by what right? And why should not the 
man who keeps the last, the Sabbath, which is the law 



226 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

of God, meet with protection by more moral right 
than he who keeps the first, the Sunday, made so by 
some man? If thus reUgion or its simulacrum sways 
the civil law when our organic laws says it must not, 
then may it dictate what our manner of worship shall 
to them be most meet. Why not elect some high 
priest by our pothouse politics, and have our legisla- 
tures dogmatize; bring back the rack and thumb- 
screw, with the fagots and the pot of boiling pitch? 
'Twould be as well, for now the law makes every con- 
science free and punishes for the using of that privi- 
lege. If, as some say, it be mere regulation, habit, 
custom, which hath long prevailed, then why not send 
to jail the man who sets his teeth in beef on Friday, or 
scourge the man who. eats accursed pork? The 
science of it is what he who runs may read. 

It was long ago, two generations nearly, so long, 
indeed, that the new generation claims a new discovery 
in what was common knowledge to old men still living" 
on the earth, when in their youth, that Cardinal Wise- 
man lectured upon ''Science and Revealed Religion," 
and put the same forth to the world in book form that 
may be anywhere obtained. It was duly criticised, 
abused, denied and vilified as was and is the common 
fate to all who broach the truth. He demonstrated 
that the alleged days of the creation were not our days 
of twenty-four hours each, an easy thing to demon- 
strate, since not until the fourth day were there any 
sun, moon, or stars to make a day like ours, but were 
cycles of time which represented ages, every one of 
which went far beyond the traditional and biblical age 
of the earth and all created things. This opinion was 
based upon geological researches and discoveries, that 
made it as plain as though read from an open book 
written by the same august hand that fixed the law 
upon the tablets of stone. It was also held that in 
geology there was nothing to conflict with the dogmas 



SABBATISM. 227 

of religious faith, and that the sacred writer used the 
word "days" strictly in a metaphorical sense, when 
referring to the creative days when the world and all 
things else were made. 

The great Cardinal's object was meritorious, and was 
to answer certain accusations of the sects that the 
Church of Rome was opposed to science and afraid 
to investigate, hence it was necessary to show, by way 
of an apology, that a close accord existed between the 
two. Although the sects at first refused to accept 
science from such a source, and clung with tenacity to 
the six twenty-four hour days, they were compelled to 
surrender bigotry to reason, common sense and inex- 
orable science, and now no man believes in anything 
but cycle days. Hence, as has been said, there is noth- 
ing to make the first day of the week other than a mere 
conventional day, and one not of divine command, as 
expounded by the sects, since if they changed the law- 
ful day, by what right did they change it? And if they 
did not, then they have no right to enforce what is 
not theirs. ■ 

It is well that we who dwell beneath a diurnal sun 
and moon can, with the aid of our sense of sight, agree 
upon the conventional division of the day and night 
into twenty-four hours — the glorious sun rises in the 
morning and sets at eve to rise again the following 
morn. There is our day. But should we settle down 
beneath a polar sun, what would we do? When some 
municipal power, urged by the pious denizens of the 
Polar lands, shall make the six months' polar day but 
one of six within which to labor, and prescribe the 
seventh as the holy one, and force on us the seventh 
year as his true Sabbath, during which neither man 
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor his barkeeper, nor his gro- 
cery clerk, shall labor, or sell and deliver, or give away 
any solids or liquids, what argument could be used to 
draw his mind away from such an absurd thing? 
Whatever might be said would be a sacrilege, and he 



228 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. j 

i 

would stand upon the rigid law and force us to sub- ; 
mission. There are those now who would swallow i 
such a preposterous view with their scriptural milk ! 
and make it a political issue, and would as now, when ! 
in the throes of frenzied sabbatism, compel all men to \ 
yield on pain of fine and imprisonment. I 



CHAPTER XXX. 

VIRTUE AND VICE. 

The rediscovery of the lost dividing hue between them. 

''FaciUs descensus Averni; 
Noctes atque dies patet atra janua Ditis; 
Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad 

auras, 
Hoc opus, hie labor est." 

— Virgil. 

Virtue is an acquired trait, whereas vice seems to be 
a natural disposition. The educational part of virtue 
lies in the frequent application of the rod of correc- 
tion, but vice, like a merry imp, lies in wait behind cir- 
cumstances and opportunities. 

The repentant sinner sneaks up to the anxious seat 
shamefacedly, while a sinner will get drunk in a devil- 
may-care way, and loudly boast of it. 

Virtue never becomes a habit, but vice is like a toper 
that would take one more swig at the intoxicating jug 
though he stood upon the abyss of perdition. 

Vice requires little urging — facilis descensus 
Averni — whereas it demands superhuman energy and 
strength to follow virtue — Hoc opus, hie labor est. 

It is a great pity that this should be so, and I have 
often thought that it ought to be the other way, that 
is, if a man had to be clubbed into vice, he would re- 
main in the way of virtue. 

It seems to be reasonable, though, that the more 
valuable the prize, the more labor it ought to require 

229 



230 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. i 

to reach it. But the reward of virtue is a long way | 
off, and even then it is made doubtful of attainment j 
by the singular policy of those who propose to super- : 
intend the distribution of the reward. What every i 
man demands in this stage of the earth's existence is i 
some immediate compensation for his outlay of money : 
or energy, and from a careful survey of many harvests ' 
vice produces the most abundant and quickest crop. : 

It is no inducement to the sinful rank and file that ■ 
virtue is its own reward, for most men are satisfied i 
from their own experience, when it comes to maxims, ', 
that everything is its ovv^n reward. Even a green apple j 
or a mince pie is in evidence of this as a truism. More- j 
over, there are so many remedial agents that con- j 
science itself is no longer a matter to be apprehended I 
or regarded as a satisfaction. ! 

The surroundings of vice are more ornamental and ; 
its methods more seductive than those of virtue, and I 
this conclusion may justly be drawn from the fact j 
that the great majority follow vice as their principal \ 
occupation. i 

Many persons describe vice as a monster of fright- \ 
ful mien, but there is an evident error in the descrip- ■ 
tion, for the constantly increasing number of those who \ 
fall from virtue indicate that there must be a hideous- ] 
ness appendant to virtue which drives men away ; 
from it. ; 

It is from a contemplation of the peculiarity of the \ 
human family to always pull the other way that in- ; 
duces many to credit the doctrine of total depravity, i 
There is certainly cumulative evidence upon the point j 
that man's normal condition is that of vice, but it is a \ 
horrible thing to believe that the creation of man was j 
a mistake, and that he has no free wdll, a corollary im- j 
mediately following total depravity. It is true that the I 
Lord himself repented that he had made man, and | 
sent the flood to get rid of him, and that he made a \ 
second trial, which proved worse than the first, but j 



VIRTUE AND VICE. 231 

this is evidence of the fact that man is not essentially 
depraved, but is possessed of free will, and responsible 
for his ov/n acts. Otherwise it would be charging the 
Creator with having created an irresponsible being, 
and then holding him responsible for what he could 
not avoid. 

One would think though that with original sin 
washed away in the waters of baptism, man would find 
himself in the primitive condition of Adam and Eve 
before the Fall, but there is no appreciable difference 
between a regenerate and an unregenerate; there is 
always the same fig leaf indicative of the crime of our 
first parents. 

This is the way the matter looks, humanly speaking, 
but theologically the idea of Calvin was that it made 
no difference whether one of the elect followed virtue 
or vice, he could not be ultimately lost. This was an 
encouraging stride in advance of a moribund theology, 
and afforded abundant consolation to those who, while 
possessing a holy fear of the tribulations that awaited 
them in the, hereafter, yet could not resist paying 
homage at the shrine of vice, and also furnished them 
with good reasons for avoiding the irksome duties at- 
tendant upon a life of virtue and indulging in the 
pleasanter and more accessible things attached to a 
cycle of vice. 

It may be that the majority of men at the present 
day are Calvinists at heart, a suggestion that is quite 
plausible from their acts, which are undoubtedly at 
variance with the hard, unyielding rules of morality. 
Why suffer the pangs and hardships of the virtuous 
when to eat, drink and be merry are not essential 
badges of perdition? 

A still further advance upon the idea of Calvin is 
that now^ so prevalent, that Hades has no existence ex- 
cept in the imagination. But it has been noticed that 
the votaries of that belief give credence to it from 
interested motives, having either done something 



232 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

which would qiiahfy them for a sojourn there, or are 
preparing to commit some act, the penahy for which 
would be a permanent residence in the pit, and 
therefore rather than endure such an injustice they 
abolish it altogether. 

It appears that virtue and vice are often dependent 
upon a man's financial condition. It was St. Augus- 
tine who first called attention to the fact that the 
poor found the path to heaven an easy one, whereas 
to the rich it was not only arduous but often inacces- 
sible. He realized in his own experience that the in- 
ability of a man to afiord the expense of a life of vice 
compelled him to submit to one of virtue, hence he 
despoiled himself of his wealth and became an apostle 
of virtue. An example too seldom followed to make 
any impression on the ranks of the wealthy, who prefer 
their wealth to poverty and are willing to take their 
chances as to virtue with wealth as "an impediment 
to its practice," as Lord Bacon says. 

In this present advanced age of human thought, it 
is impossible to define virtue or vice, or to establish 
any distinct boundary line between them. Indeed, 
there is no man who can practice any virtue without 
encountering somebody else's vice, and on the other 
hand, there is hardly any vice that a man can fall into 
without also practicing somebody else's virtue. And 
so it comes about that men, bewildered, soon grow 
indifferent and go along through life as if there were 
no such thing as virtue or vice in the world. 

The signs of the times are that this condition of 
things v/ill not long remain at haphazard, for there are 
many at work compiling statute law into, a code of 
morals and moral government, and then the morality 
of an act will depend upon the penalty attached to its 
commission; moreover, its conviction can always be 
provided for by its official commission. 

The great distinction nowadays between virtue and 
vice lies in the common belief that vice is always poor 



VIRTUE AND VICE. 233 

and virtue rich. Beyond the occasional attacks made 
upon the vices of the rich by sensational clergymen 
and the froth of impecunious newspapers for rent or 
for sale, the great army of the friends of humanity ac- 
cept poverty as essentially vicious and direct all of 
their efforts in the direction of battling with and over- 
coming the vice, leaving the poverty triumphant. They 
are husbandmen who destroy weeds by pruning the 
tops instead of cutting out the roots. That this is so 
is easily demonstrable. Does poverty attack the vices 
of the rich? Behold a seething, bubbling mass of 
virulence spewed upon it; the banner of the brother- 
hood of man is quickly folded away and the brassy 
banner of patriotism unfurled, calling legions to its 
support to crush out the wanton, rebellious outrage. 

Let me whisper something in your ear, neighbor, 
for it would be anarchy to say it aloud from the house- 
tops: The vices of the poor are as nothing compared 
with the vices of the rich; they have not the same 
golden opportunities. We imagine the peccadilloes of 
the poor to be vices because they do not wear stylish 
clothing, live in unhealthy and low quarters, digest 
poor food, even the trash you would not throw to a 
dog. Where there is so much squalor there must be 
vice, you say; something must be rotten where there 
exists a bad smell. But listen further, friend: You 
are confounding vice with poverty, at least mixing 
them, and making one the essence of the other. That 
is where the mistake is, as I have been contending all 
along. Is it any greater pleasure to the victim 
whether he is put to sleep with a vulgar sand bag 
wielded by a ruffian or a jeweled hat pin in the hands 
of a magnificent woman? Whether is it worse to be- 
come drunk upon rotgut whiskey in a Raines law 
hotel, or procure the same kind of a jag on cham- 
pagne at Delmonico's? The police make a distinc- 
tion, for the whiskey "drunk" is thrown into a cell to 
sleep off his debauch, whereas the gilded devotee of 



234 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

Bacchus is tenderly put to bed, boots and all, and 
tucked in with swan's down coverings. The brazen 
Jezebel, who loves for the mere lust of loving, who 
exhibits her jewels and her seductive personal charms 
in all the decollete paraphernalia of fashion in public 
places and in public halls to the aggravation of eroti- 
cism, has her beauty and her charms delineated in the 
virtuous newspapers to the further spread of the tem- 
pest of lust and the deification of vice. But the poor 
woman, weak from want, her poor charms lost in the 
skeleton of poverty, secretly staggers about the hidden 
by-ways and purlieus, waiting to sell her remnant of 
a body for bread; she, she is caught in the meshes 
of merciless municipal lav/ or by some descendant of 
Onan, the agent of a purity association, and cast into 
prison. Why? Because she is spreading lust and 
endangering a virtuous community by her wicked ex- 
ample? That cannot be, for she works in secret and in 
fear and trembling, whereas the other is covered with 
signal flags. It is because she is poor and her poverty 
is her crime. The cause, the author of that poverty, 
of that crime, is the perfumed wanton who sits on high 
bedizened with jewels and satins or the simpering fool 
by her side, sitting upon his hinged hat. 

Who can deny that it is always the poor who are 
fastened upon and quarantined as the wretched vic- 
tims of a disease, of an epidemic, and the root of the 
disease, the filthy rags hidden beneath silks and satins, 
luitouched? Hence it is that vice will always flourish, 
for the origin of it is in the rich, and their wealth places 
them beyond the reach of the moralist who would lose 
his wage by preaching Christ. It is a cowardice to 
attack a victim incapable of resistance* but so it is. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

WEALTH AND POVERTY. 

This chapter is both true and untrue, depending upon 
the way it is looked at. 

''Rich men sm and I eat root." 

— Timon of Athens, Act L, Scene i. 

"For ye have the poor always w^ith you." 

— St. Matthew xxvi., 2. 

The condition of wealth and poverty depends upon 
two essentials: The ability to get money and the 
power to retain possession of it after it is acquired. 
The presence of both these elements makes what is 
usually called a "rich man," the absence of either 
creates a "poor man." 

There is no known rule by the observance of which 
these essentials may be learned. They are neither the 
result of education nor ignorance, for learned men are 
frequently poor and ignorant ones arrive at the blessed 
condition of millionaires. Nor is it thrift or prodigal- 
ity that makes one or the other, for a thrifty miser may 
be a pauper in rags and a lavish hand may cast his 
money in a mossy hollow, or, casting it like bread 
upon the waters, it may return to him. 

It is probable that if all the wealth of the earth were 
transferred from the hands of those who now hold it 
into the possession of the poverty stricken, it would 
soon find its way back again, and the relative posi- 
tions of wealth and poverty again becom.e as they are 

235 



236 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

now. Nay, the poor would be reduced to a more piti- 
able condition than before, because having once ex- 
perienced the delights of wealth, their condition would 
have added to it the deplorable mental pangs attendant 
upon its loss or theft. 

The beatific condition of wealth grows out of the 
possession of money, and the capacity for spending it, 
and the dissatisfaction of poverty arises from the 
knowledge of the uses to which money can be applied 
and the inability to apply that knowledge to practical 
purposes. 

This brings the question to the fact of knowledge ac- 
quired in a cruel school — a useless accomplishment. 
The child sees the bright moon, wants it, and cries be- 
cause no one will give it him. Better blindness, or at 
least a bandage, rather than be surrounded by similar 
circumstances during a lifetime. 

The man whose back is bent with toil and whose 
sole food is black bread, is not poor; but when there 
comes to him the knowledge that there is an unequal 
distribution of what he is told are the good things of 
life, he envies the possessors of wealth, his bread be- 
comes bitter and his lot miserable. Then he is poor, 
indeed. 

It is a fact, borne out by statistics, that there are as 
many rich men who commit suicide through despair 
at finding ways to rid themselves of their money, or 
through the anxiety of taking care of it and fear of 
losing it, as there are poor men who make way with 
themselves through lack of it. And though this fact 
does not settle anything, it makes clear another fact, 
that a reversal of the conditions of the rich and poor 
would not produce any better or more satisfactory re- 
sults than those constantly occurring around us now. 

It is idle to believe that we would know what to do 
with money if we had all we desired, for there never 
was and never will be an individual who knows just 
exactly the proper thing to do with the ''root" under 



WEALTH AND POVERTY. 22,^ 

any given combination of circumstances. We have 
behind us six thousand years of varied experience in 
every hne of human affairs, and we have the certainty 
of absohite knowledge that men's natures cannot 
change, and will not change in any appreciable degree, 
by changing their conditions or surrounding them by 
new circumstances. This is the general rule, and the 
possession of money does not constitute an exception. 
It must be admitted that while a poor man always 
desires to become rich, a rich man never desires to be 
poor, unless, as in the case of the very saintly and 
holy, some equivalent is obtained for the money. The 
suddenly rich poor man plunges into dissipation, be- 
comes a prodigal spendthrift and succeeds in squan- 
dering his means, finally falling into the pit, deeper 
than he was in before he chmbed out on his ladder of 
gold. But the rich man, suddenly impoverished, sets 
to' work and recovers his wealth. The one knows how 
to make money, the other can only spend it, which 
brings us back to the starting point, that wealth and 
poverty are mere matters of special training; a success- 
ful thief will serve to iUustrate the difference. 

It is a true thing to say that more money is made out 
of the vices and misfortunes of humanity, more when 
added to the sum total is the cost of luxuries, than out 
of staple necessaries, and history discloses the fact 
that where such a condition exists there is more gen- 
eral prosperity than when the great mass of the people 
are satisfied with the actual necessaries of life. This 
indisputable fact is one of the conclusive proofs that 
the dreams of economists and reformers can never be 
realized. 

Indeed, with our modern social views and policies, it 
w-ould be impossible for us to return to the former 
system, where the bulk of the populace were satisfied 
with a little rice, a handful of dates or figs, and all the 
rest given up to maintain imperial pomp and the splen- 
dor of magnificent temples. Moreover, the blessings 



238 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

of civilization carried to the uttermost parts of the 
earth are nothing but the conversion of economists 
to prodigaHty for the benefit of trade. We w^ould 
teach the frugal hosts of Oriental people to pay us 
their hard-earned money, instead of to their oppres- 
sors. We shift their burden of taxation for them. 

Civilization has certainly brought about a better dis- 
tribution of w^ealth, and where there exists utter pov- 
erty there has been either improvidence or robbery. 
Indeed, no man need be poor, for, if by reason of the 
superior educational facilities afforded him, he is un- 
fitted to work with his hands, his educated brain finds 
opportunities in the well filled ranks of the chevaliers 
d'industrie to acquire the wherewith to dine and dress 
well, besides a little over for the maintenance of the 
gaming table and race track. He may also enter the 
lists with those engaged in the dissemination of theo- 
logical opinions, and the newer and the more startling 
are his theories in this open field, the greater will be 
his following and the better lined his purse. A splen- 
did field is in the organization of some charity, the 
profits of which are as three dollars to the organizers 
for one expended for the benefit of the beneficiaries, 
an investment that has no parallel except in the profits 
realized from the sale of stock in heavily capitalized 
incorporations duly organized according to law. 
There can be no Lazarus in these modern times, for 
the modern Lazarus would so ingratiate himself that 
he would have a seat at Dives' right hand and realize 
great profits from commissions by persuading him to 
invest his millions in magnificent schemes, mayhap he 
would elope with Dives' daughter. 

From the man who throttles the markets of the 
country of the world and corners the necessaries of life 
to his amazing profit, down to his prototype who sells 
adulterated foods and drugs, waters his molasses and 
vinegar and gives short weight, all are doing remark- 
ably well, and the only one who justly complains is 



WEALTH AND POVERTY. 239 

the unsuccessful thief, or the embezzler caught in the 
toils. Even piety opens the door to positions of trust 
and profit with their consequent supplies of cash for 
champagne suppers and vaudeville performances. 
There are avenues without stint and no man can mon- 
opolize them all. Hence no man need be poor. 

But all this is the dull wit of a cynic or the oily lan- 
guage of an optimistic Pharisee. Wealth and poverty 
are the extremes in human life; wherever there is 
found Vv^ealth, there also is found poverty, and the 
greater the wealth, the more grinding the poverty. 
They are the unsurmountable barriers in our social 
system. 

In approaching any city we find the hovels of the 
poor in the suburbs and as we near the center the 
buildings, temples, monuments and what not increase 
in grandeur and magnificence. Like a huge wheel, the 
human machine revolves and by its centrifugal force 
throws out to the circumference and scatters along its 
periphery, the soiled, torn and . tattered rubbish of 
humanity, .reserving the hub for the concentration of 
wealth. A. diffusion of poverty! 

We go abroad and delve among the grand ruins of 
antiquity, to find models which we utilize in our own 
edifices; ruins so grand, stately and magnificent, that 
the wealth we are accumulating has not yet been able 
to equal. But we are studying, working and planning 
not only to equal them, but to surpass. When we have 
accomplished our aim, what then? 

The broken columns, the delicate traceries, the ex- 
quisite carvings, sumptuous palaces, peerless statuary, 
wonderful monuments and mysterious Sphinxes and 
Pyramids, were all once vast centers of wealth, the 
hubs of wreat wheels which revolved faster and faster, 
and cast far out and away from their rims, as contam- 
inating things, the shreds of humanity that created 
them all. Far out in the pitiless sands their bones are 
buried deep, lost to sight, but the monuments re- 



240 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

main, the refinements of wealth. We are nearing the 
summit of their glory, for our wheels are revolving 
faster and faster; our centers are growing in greatness 
and we are dazzling the eyes of all mankind. We also 
are casting out into the desert of want, burying them 
in its arid, unfertile sands, the poor, the poverty- 
striken, the eye-sores and disturbers of the refinement 
of wealth. We are perfuming our mummy cloths to 
hide the rankness of our corruption. The kings of 
Egypt did the same, but their bones are scattered like 
those of their victims. 

The boundary line between wealth and poverty is 
not yet made impassible. The poor have not yet be- 
come the pyramid builders of Egypt, the Aztec peons 
of Mexico. They do not move out of the way fast 
enough ; they might crawl back upon the hub and stop 
the motion of our wheel to prevent it grinding into 
powder themselves, their children and their children's 
children. They are a standing menace to our prog- 
ress, for we have not yet reached the summit of re- 
finement visible in the magnificent ruins of past ages 
but we are hurrying thither. Fine progress, indeed i, 
but crab-like. Yet 'tis historical that the world has 
never moved except upon the back of poverty and 
over the prostrate poor. 

When the tocsin sounded upon our Liberty Bell, it 
seemed as though a myriad of shadowy eyes looked 
thitherward in shining joy, that the causes which sent 
them down to perish would cease to be, and that here 
their fellows would enjoy the reality of what they only 
dreamed. But now their eyes are hopeless, for they 
see the same causes at work to help fill their ranks, and 
that the tongue of Liberty Bell has ceased to speak. 

Is the tongue of that Liberty Bell silent? If so be it 
is, what is there that can make it speak again? 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

PESSIMISM— OPTIMISM. 

Extremes meet, hence both may be "Calamity 
howlers." 

''Hung be the heavens with black, yield day 

to night! 
Comets, importing change of times and 

States, 
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky." 

— King Henry VI., Part L, Act i, Scene r. 

''And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying ; neither shall there 
be any more pain; for the former things are 
passed away." 

— Revelation xxi., 4. 

These are the two discordant elements that play 
havoc with the affairs and hearts of men. One is as 
bad as the other, with a shade of merit on the side of 
pessimism. The earth was created in an optimistic 
spirit, which, when the object of that creation was null- 
ified by the extraordinary lack of common sense ex- 
hibited by our first parents in the novv^ unlovely Garden 
of Eden, was changed to the most radical of pessimis- 
tic ventures. 

A large gulf in the original optimism was dug and 
filled with the darkness of pessimism and, floundering 
in it, man looks back to the joys lost to him forever 

241 



242 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

by another's folly, and again, forward to the forbidding 
cliffs that bar his entrance into the joys to come. He 
is granted the sight of a few faint rays of hope, which 
are as illusive and delusive as are all theories that have 
no actual, real existence. 

The people of the earth are muddled in a maze of 
crooked definitions and wander aimlessly at cross 
purposes thrown in their way as stumbling-blocks by 
the felonious intent of their fellows. Those who flatter 
with optimistic views are bold as brass in their pre- 
sumption, and mislead the earth to its undoing. 

They forge the fetters of the slave while holding out 
to him the tinseled star of hope; fill up the stomachs 
of the poor with visionary bread, and goad the toiler 
to still lower bend his weary, aching back and cheer- 
fully submit to crushing burdens, for that a good time 
is coming. The evils that afflict the people of the 
earth can never be cured by optimistic fancies, no 
more than can the racking pains and galling sores of 
the bedridden be healed by their concealment. 

There never was a time so ripe with arrant greed, a 
greed that to maintain its own unholy gains and grasp 
for more, enacts the role of Pharisee, whose tenets au- 
thorized the lash upon the backs of slaves while 
whimpering in their ears that misused command of 
Christ: "Servants, obey your masters." 

What mean these idle catchwords, that fall from 
some men's lips, with sound and sense as meaningless 
as the mumbled language falling from a parrot's 
tongue? 

In the theological order, both are mortal sins of like 
degree, since optimism is presumption, and despair 
the other. In politics the party "in" are optimists, the 
party "out," vile pessimists. Financially, the man op- 
pressed by dire want imagines that the final trump is 
sounding, whereas the man of substantial means 
treads in a flowery garden. The pious see the gate of 
heaven opening wide to them and glory over the im- 



PESSIMISM— OPTIMISM. 243 

pious hanging on the verge of hell. The Scribes and 
Pharisees are optimists, and the Good Samaritan, who 
plasters up the wounds of the wayside victinij nothing 
but an arrant pessimist. The pangs of hunger find a 
lodging place v/ithin the stomach of a pessimist, and a 
royal dinner is the joy of an optimist. The slave looks 
through a darkened glass, but to his master all things 
are bright and clear. 

Optimism is a comparative virtue; pessimism, a rel- 
ative vice, v/herefore the latter is dominant. Love is 
the destroyer of pessimism; optimism sinks beneath 
the touch of bankruptcy. The contest between the 
two is like an eternal game of tenpins, where the pins 
are constantly overthrown, to be as constantly re-set, 
and the score of the game is always a tie. 

Our modern optimists are Roscicrucians, who be- 
wilder the masses with vain ideals which they do not 
believe have any existence, and fill the earth with 
lamentations because they do not exist. They flatter 
themselves with high sounding words and vague and 
dreamy utterances that entangle many, but which miti- 
gate no evils, redress no wrongs, soothe no pain and 
cure no wounds. They are the mind-healers of the 
earth who feed the hungry at their Barmecidal feasts 
and give the thirsty the dead sea fruit of delusive hope. 

Whenever a human wrong has been righted, an en- 
slaved nation freed, a sinner brought to salvation, the 
deed has always been the work of a pessimist, and 
whenever a wrong has been inflicted, an obstacle cast 
in the way of mercy, charity and brotherly love, it may 
be traced to the optimistic school of philosophers, 
whose doctrine is found in the language of the poet : 

"One truth is clear, whatever is is right." 

A philosophy that plunges man dowm into a gulf of 
despair, without hope of relief, without power to de- 
fend against oppression and injustice, A philosophy 



244 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

which, carried to its ultimate optimistic length, leads 
to the depths in which are sunk all those who bear 
upon their 'banner the common legend: 

"Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die." 

There is less hope for those who climb to dizzy 
heights of optimistic congratulation than for those 
plunged in the dark gulf of pessimistic woe, for to the 
latter tEere shall come a new heaven and a new earth, 
and former things shall pass away. But the former 
have forestalled their future abiding place by a crea- 
tion out of their own presumption. 

It is the pessimist who is harmless, for he exposes 
his ailments to all the world; shouts his warning cries 
from the housetops. He is a perpetual eyesore to the 
smooth, oily optimist, who is to be feared, for he 
creates his own optimism by the destruction of the 
rights of others, employs force to beat down opposi- 
tion. The child that cries for bread is a pessimist, and 
the man who flings it into the gutter to be covered up 
by death, out of sight, is the optimist. Optimism is the 
rack, thumbscrew, faggot, gridiron, peine forte et dure 
of the Inquisition, which forced its victims down upon 
their marrow bones to cry ''peccavi." 

Already has the thumbscrew been applied to Ameri- 
can politics, and the optimistic precursor of a prosper- 
ity which 

"... begins to mellow 
And drop into the rotten mouth of death," 

is preparing to crush out the pessimist who sees no 
prosperity. There is no prosperity, but the pessimist 
must say there is or suffer martyrclom for denying it. 

The "Force Bill" of New York is the entering 
wedge, one of its means of desecrating and violating 
the rights of American citizens, and compelling them 



PESSIMISM— OPTIMISM. 245 ) 

to bend the knee in meek submission to the power of i 

an administration whose way leads to the death of j 

Hberty. The shghtest opposition, the disturbance of ; 

so much as a hair upon the head of optimism, and i 

"crack" may go the gun in the hands of an arbitrary \ 

power, superior to and independent of the Constitu- \ 

tion, laws, rights -and privileges of the citizen. It is j 

the beginning of the domination of the public will by \ 

force in a peaceful republic, the advance agent of a | 

despotism that from now on until the fading away | 

of the year "nineteen hundred" will expend all its | 

power and energy to perpetuate itself in ofhce. If not, ■ 
why this preparation to intimidate the citizen in the 
free exercise of the right of suffrage? If the people 
cannot be trusted to preserve their rights and require 

a guardian, by what right, under what lavv^, through \ 

whom, has this machine become their guardian? • 

With the full consciousness of its corrupt, disastrous | 

methods; with the full knowledge that it cannot secure \ 

the welfare of the people and at the same time obey : 

the mandates of its master, the money power, it stoops | 

to methods more fitting in an Oriental Pachalic than 1 

in a free American republic. Nor will it hesitate to I 

commit crimes of the greatest magnitude to perpetu- j 

ate its misgovernment and maladministration in the in- ! 

terests of money. With tears flowing down its croco- I 

dile jaws, it seeks to cover up its own corruption and | 

oppressive methods by bev^ailing the downtrodden j 

condition of other nations, while standing over its own \ 

people with a lash. To this, machine politics have led j 

us, and like sheep we are following our leaders into j 
the ditch and over the precipice. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

INFALLIBILITY OF THE HINDSIGHT. 

Showing why we know more this week than we 
thought we knew last week. 

"Foresight" and "Hindsight!" What a wide, deep, 
impassable chasm yawns between them! Will it ever 
be bridged? 

The man who in a spasm of self-righteousness first 
said, "I told you so," has never been discovered. He 
is the great unknown, whose followers are as innumer- 
able as the sands of the seashore. The creed he pro- 
mulgated has never been altered, amended or repealed, 
and the faith manifested in it by his apostles and dis- 
ciples has never been weakened by even a breath of 
heresy. 

The ever sleepless, always ex-cathedra hindsight is 
the sole staf¥ and support of the frail, weak and im- 
becile foresight, besides injecting, into it something of 
the life blood of energy and activity which inspires it, 
perhaps goads it, into blindly groping about in the 
darkness of unwisdom, until it falls into the ditch of 
absurdity, where it flounders in despair, waiting for 
hindsight to come to its rescue, which it always does, 
and wiping off the mud replaces it upon the edge 
again, whence it again falls into the same ditch upon 
the slightest provocation. 

Blessed hindsight! How different things would be 
this week had we known as much last week as we do 
now! How miserable would we have been last year 
had we not known that we would be further advanced 

246 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE HINDSIGHT. 247 

in knowledge and information this year! It is the 
one bright ray of hope in whatever we do, that at some 
future time we shall discover that we would have done 
different if — But it is ever thus; we never do the same 
thing twice in just the same way. It is always some 
new thing, or some new phase of the same old thing. 
Or, perhaps, the circumstances and surroundings are 
dissimilar and so unrecognizable, that we are con- 
tinually forced to call upon our hindsight for aid in our 
extremity. 

"You might have known better." True, my friend 
and fidus Achates, but you knew I was going to do it, 
and wherefore, then, did you wait until I had done it 
before warning me? 

Fellow-wallowersin this slough of despond, did you 
ever profit by the teachings of your hindsight? You 
never did, for there was never a mortal who did. And 
did the value of its monitions ever compensate you for 
the attempt? You need not answer, for we can make 
the universal answer "no" for you, because we have 
tried it and come out just the same way. The reason 
of the failure is plain; if you think seriously about it, 
no man ever has an opportunity to do the same thing 
over again in exactly the same way. There is always 
a slight shade of difference, but it is as much of an im- 
passe as a mountain. Your hindsight discovers this, 
and it is never mistaken, it is infallible. 

No, it is not the power of prophecy, clairvoyance, or 
the intelligence of a spiritist medium that lies behind 
hindsight as a motive power. These merely predict 
something as liable to happen which may not happen 
if your course of conduct leads you around it, whereas 
hindsight always operates upon something that has 
already irrevocably happened. If it had not it would 
not be hindsight, but something else. 

The mind shudders at the contemplation of the re- 
sults that would have occurred had hindsight swayed 
the world and influenced mortality. Napoleon would 



248 'THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

have been Madame de Stael and the dagger of Brutus 
would not have permitted Marc Antony to make his 
celebrated speech over Caesar's remains, for that noble 
Roman would have remained at home with Calpurnia. 
We venture to say that in such case, Columbus would 
have refused to discover America, and it may be that 
to gratify popular clamor, the earth would have re- 
volved on its axis the other way and the sun would 
have shone at night when most needed. And also, 
though it is a shame to say it, many of our defeated 
candidates in our periodical elections would have been 
elected and the others defeated. 

Perhaps it is just as well, when one comes to think 
of it, for there is no greater nor more delightful privi- 
lege than to remind men of their mistakes and follies 
and say, *'I told you so." And when the fool who 
says, "I told you so," is in his turn struck by the same 
tahsmanic sentence as with a boomerang, he gives a 
sickly smile and says, "Humanum est errare," which 
is the same as saying, "Oh! well, of course, I told you 
so." 

In loud, resounding, deafening platitudes, men warn 
each other of the rocks and shoals of life, after becom- 
ing wise like Solomon with a thousand tribulations. 
Every one gives to every other one his own compass, 
and when they stand upon the shoals through some 
mysterious variation of the foresight of another, and 
when about to die as the fool dieth, a voice is whis- 
pered into each one's ear, saying, "I told you so." 

It is quite common for American citizens in the 
habit of occasionally exercising the right of suffrage 
to sometimes look back upon their vote and wish they 
had voted otherwise, or remained away from the polls. 
Indeed there is a large and increasing number of citi- 
zens who seldom or never vote, for the reason, as they 
say, ''It will not be of any use." Of course, this re- 
fers to the rank and file of perfunctory voters, those 
who are never and can never be candidates for any 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE HINDSIGHT. 249 

office; who do not receive any of the loaves and fishes 
of official patronage; who are smiled upon, taken by 
the hand, called "my dear Mr. Smith" and treated to 
beer and cheap cigars before election, but totally ig- 
nored afterwards. It does not refer to the managers 
of the machine, its oilers, stokers and steersmen; those 
who have the pull and the influence, nor to newspapers 
who are in the business of politics up to their necks, 
and swim in fat printing jobs; who are paid by the 
column for shouting patriotism and denouncing all 
those of the opposite parties as liars and calumniators 
for money, who run after the machine with their penny- 
a-liners spread out to catch the drops of rich grease 
that drip from its wheels. None of these people ever 
look back with regret except that they did not get a 
little more oil. They have no hindsight, they are full 
of foresight, not for what the people ought to have, 
but for the filling of their own pockets. It is the 
tools, the dum.b stocks and stones, those who allow 
themselves to be led astray by cheap noise, brass 
bands, beer, poor cigars, glowing promises, fawning 
smiles, fuss and feathers and ante-election flattery, 
those who have no minds of their own and who say, 
"We have nothing to lose," when they have everything 
to lose and all to gain. They are the ones who are 
the victims of hindsight. 

There is one powerful element that might be 
brought to bear against hindsight, to prevent its de- 
stroying foresight, and that is the lesson learned in the 
school of experience. "A burned child dreads the 
fire," but a grown man allows himself to be repeatedly 
drawn in through the door of poverty by the seductive 
blandishments of promises. The music • of a brass 
band, the oratorical lies of stump speakers, whose arms 
are in public office and public funds up to the elbows, 
appeals to patriotism from hireling newspapers who 
have less patriotism than Benedict Arnold, induce him 
to surrender his freedom and sell his birthright for less 



250 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

than a mess of pottage. His remorse then brings him 
up to the anxious seat, where, filled with spasmodic 
zeal for his own interests, he plants his foot firmly 
down, refusing to advance a single step further with 
the machine until it recognizes that he has some rights 
to be respected; but he soon weakens and backslides. 
He is like the man who wakes up in the morning after 
a night of hilarity and good fellowship with an en- 
larged cranium ; he swears off, but trips again and 
again until he becomes a confirmed dipsomaniac, a 
victim of the delusive "gold cure." 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 
EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY. 

A consolatory chapter for the hungry. 

''There is nothing better for a man than 
that he should eat and drink, and that he 
should make his soul enjoy good in his 
labor.'* — Ecclesiastes ii., 24. 

''Whoso starveth his body, hath a starvel- 
ing soul." — Lunar Caustic. 

There are certain persons so persistent in their 
efforts to keep all the rest of their fellows tugging at 
the nursing bottle during the brief period of human 
existence, that we suspect some personal weakness to 
lie at the root of their sumptuary regulations. 

There are those fuh of superstition concerning the 
number "13," and when we investigate the matter, it 
is found that one of the 13 was Judas. Hence we 
opine that the fear of that odd number arises from the 
knowledge of a personal weakness that might lead 
the believers in the superstition to betray the Saviour 
or some friend. 

It is this overwhelming fear of inability to resist 
temptation that produces what are known as "reform- 
ers," whose vagaries are based upon their own sad 
experiences, and upon their own distressing lack of 
strength to overcome the obstacles strewn along the 
pathway of life, whence, out of kindness of heart, 
except where financial or political motives interfere, 

251 



252 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

and seeing* man mirrored in their own morbid imagina- 
tions, they set out to ameliorate what they assume is a 
similar condition in their fellow-men. They are those 
of whom St. Paul speaks in i Corinthians viii., 9, and 
who also, by reason of too long a milk diet, are not 
strong enough to digest good meat. Being milk fed, 
they are carnal, (i Corinthians iii., 2-3.) 

There is reckless error, particularly in the matter of 
diet, and incalculable damage has ensued by the shat- 
tering of nerves at Barmecidal feasts, and injury to 
the stomach through loss of saliva at the forbidden sur- 
vey of the good things of life provided by a bountiful 
Creator for the wicked, but which the saint regards as 
the sacrificial meats of idolatry. 

Quoth Sancho Panza: "Let me eat, I say, or let 
them take their government again, for an ofhce that 
will not afford a man his victuals is not worth two 
horse beans." 

It should never be forgotten that the human diges- 
tive apparatus is very like a distillery in its operations, 
and when crude, raw materials are introduced into it, 
the component parts of those materials must be me- 
chanically extracted by the mortal interior. What- 
ever distressing symptoms occur, the dyspeptic acidu- 
lations and what not are but the fermentation required 
in the process of digestion. 

The expression, *'raw materials," has been used de- 
signedly, for the unfermented juice of the grape may 
be more deleterious than the same juice fermented into 
wine, for in the latter case the work is already done, 
whereas in the former the stomach must undergo the 
arduous labor of distillation. The same may be said 
of soda water and all soft drinks, with their fermen- 
table syrups which eventually drag the stomach into 
the slough of dyspepsia. 

If the truth were told and careful statistics prepared, 
it would appear that dyspepsia brought about by un- 
der-indulgence is more common than that attributed 



EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY. 253 j 

i 

to over-indulgence,' whether the abstinence or excess ' 

be denominated "temperance" or "drunkenness." ; 

Depriving the human system of its necessary stimu- ' 

lants and other nourishments leads as much to the j 
crime of murder as to the driving of it into dipsomania 

or apoplexy by excessive indulgence. The extremes ] 

meet and there are as many cases of felo de se from ex- j 

cessive temperance as from intoxicating liquors. ! 

Dyspepsia and biliousness never excite love and af- j 

fection or any other of the sentimental passions, ex- j 

cept, perhaps, piety, and then it is dyspepsia and not j 

religion that crops out. On the contrary, these i 

twin evils develop dislike, hatred, and rouse all of the j 

evil passions, even the murderous instinct — particular- ! 

ly in the heart of the person whose life is joined to that | 

of the dyspeptic. It is to this morbid condition of the i 

liver and stomach that may be attributed most of the ] 

emotional religionism extant among persons of hypo- 1 

chondriacal and feeble temperament, and it may be l 

repeated as a truism that more harm has been done by ^ 

dyspepsia and an inactive liver in the body of an ill- '. 

regulated eater, than by whiskey or wine drinking in a ] 

healthy stomach. No one ever heard of an epicure ] 

worrying about the end of the world, the destruction : 

of the country, or weeping over his own sins and those i 

of others. Such unpleasant traits of character are re- \ 

served for the abstainers from the rood things of life. ! 

There is no getting away from the fact that the pes- ; 

simist, he who believes the world is or ought to be ' 
coming to an end; the thoroughbred believer in total 

depravity; the lugubrious, rueful sorrower at the in- \ 

iquities of mankind; the disturber of everybody's peace \ 

of mind, by harping on hell; the man who cannot let 1 

well enough alone and the patriot who deems the \ 

country in so much danger of ruin and that he is the \ 

only one who can save it, is the man who feeds on cod- I 

liver oil for his lungs; patronizes gruel for his stom- j 

ach's sake; revels in calomel to restrict or enliven his 1 



254 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

liver; swallows tons of saturated solutions of lime and 
sulphur to quell disturbances in his kidneys; spends a 
small fortune in porous plasters to warm up his spleen ; 
abstains from wine and tobacco for fear of paresis, and 
is finally attacked by an appendicitis because he per- 
sists in eating the wrong things and sternly sets his 
face against living up to his manhood, and is also the 
crank, the fanatic, the lunatic, the saint who monopo- 
lizes the green pastures and flowery meads of paradise, 
and relegates everybody who disagrees with him, as 
does wholesome food, to the other place. According 
to the doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh, it will 
require considerable purification to fit such bodies for 
the joys of heaven, as they are understood by the multi- 
tude whose stomachs are able to digest good, solid 
meat. 

Let him eat who wills, and what he wills. The 
faith that wiU cure a disease will bring it on, and the 
truth will some day appear as clear as the sun at noon- 
day, that heredity is more from inadequate stomach 
training than the taint of ancestral blood. Of course 
what is one man's meat is another man's poison, and 
every one must follow the dictates of his own stomach 
in such matters, particularly when, after a long course 
of gastric abuse, either by too much abstinence, or 
over-indulgence, he has brought his stomach into a 
condition unfit to listen to the dictates of reason. It is 
a gogd saying, repeated on all occasions, in and out of 
season, that ''No man should put into his stomach that 
which will steal away his brain." But it is a poor rule 
that will not work both ways, and therefore it is equally 
as good a common sense rule that "No man should 
put that into his brain which will steal away his 
stomach." 

To again quote our friend Sancho Panza: "Look 
you, Senor Doctor, hereafter never trouble yourself 
to get me dainties or titbits to humor my stomach ; that 
would but take it quite off the hinges, by reason it has 



EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY. 255 

been used to nothing but good beef, bacon, pork, 
goat's flesh, turnips and onions; and if you ply me with 
your kickshaws, your nice courtiers' fare, it will but 
make my stomach squeamish and untoward." 

The relations between the body and the soul are so 
intimate and their connections so delicately balanced 
that the text will bear repeating: "Whoso starveth his 
body, hath a starveling soul." Hence, let us eat, drink 
and be merry, for "there is nothing better for a man 
than that he should eat and drink." 

Wherefore not? We certainly have an abundance 
suffering to be eaten, and which it would be a sin and 
a shame to allow to go to waste with so many hungry 
stomachs more than willing to absorb it. According 
to the statistics, which resemble the "general good" 
while the "particular good" is starving, the following is 
the annual meal check of the population of'the United 
States, exclusive of a tip to the speculating waiter. In 
solids and fluids, say the men of figures, which cannot 
lie, we pay for solids and fluids consumed by us the 
neat sum of four thousand five hundred millions of dol- 
lars per annum. This is the bill of fare, the "menu:" 

FISH. — Eight hundred million pounds. 

BEEF. — Five thousand million pounds. 

PORK. — Four thousand million pounds. 

MUTTON.— Eight hundred million pounds. 

POULTRY.— One thousand two hundred . 
million pounds. 

EGGS.— Eight hundred and fifty million 
dozen. 

POTATOES.— Three hundred million bush- 
els. 

SWEET POTATOES.— Forty-five million 
bushels. 

BEANS. — Three million bushels. 

PEAS. — Six million bushels. 



256 THE DESTRUCTION OF • POVERTY. 

ONIONS. — Two million five hundred thou- 
sand bushels. 

RICE. — Three hundred million pounds (one- 
half of which is imported). 

BUTTER. — One thousand three hundred 
and fifty million pounds. 

CHEESE.— Two hundred and thirty million 
pounds. 

BUCKWHEAT.— Eifteen million bushels. 

BREAD, CAKE, PIES, ETC.— Enough to 
use up one hundred millions of barrels of 
flour, containing one hundred and ninety- 
eight pounds each, not including rye flour, 
barley, oat and corn' meal ad libitum, 
drawn from a supply of corn, rye and 
barley, amounting to two thousand two 
hundred millions of bushels. 

SUGAR. — Five thousand five hundred mil- 
lion pounds, seven-eighths of which is im- 
ported. 

To wash down this table d'hote, we annually swal- 
low: 

COFFEE. — One thousand one hundred mil- 
lion gallons. 

TEA. — One thousand one hundred million 
gallons. 

SOFT DRINKS.— Four hundred million 
gallons. 

HARD DRINKS.— One thousand four hun- 
dred million gallons. 

To aid in digesting this grand meal, we smoke about 
three thousand five hundred million cigars and cigar- 
ettes, the check for which amounts to about seventy 
millions of dollars extra. 

It should be noted that with the exception of coffee, 



EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY. 257 

tea, rice, sugar, alcoholic liquors, tobacco and sundry 
delicatessen, we export as much as we consume, the 
statistician assuming that what we do not export is 
eaten up by the population. 

The average daily ration, therefore, of every man, 
woman and child in the United States, including puny 
infants and the infirm and delicate, equals about four 
pounds of sohds and Hquids, and may be doubled; 
moreover, there is enough unproductive land to quad- 
ruple our bill of fare. Hence it happens that Mr. 
Blaine was correct in his statement that the United 
States would support many more millions than it now 
contains. 

But in truth and in fact it does not support the mil- 
lions it now contains in spite of the above lavish menu, 
gathered from the most recent statistics attainable. So 
far as is concerned the labor which produces these pro- 
visions there is no difificulty, for that can be supported 
out of the products raised by it, without regarding 
money as of any consequence, but it happens that 
there are five millions of laborers engaged in the manu- 
facture of products that are not food products, and for 
their sustenance money is absolutely essential, inas- 
much as all this plenty would not avail them to the 
extent of a single meal without it. To them should be 
added those dependent upon them for support, which 
would enlarge the numbei actuall}' dependent upon 
the wages of labor to enjoy the bountiful repast to at 
least twenty-five mullions. ' This means that when 
labor is not employed it cannot eat, or lather, shall not 
eat, for without money it is a case of abstinence. We 
know^ as a fact that labor is not all employed by a mul- 
titude, and that when some labor is employed, its wage 
is inadequate to secure its daily ration of four pounds. 

In spite of this plenty, we have over one hundred 
and fifty thousand paupers, inmates of public institu- 
tions, to which, when added, are the multitude of out- 



258 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

door paupers, inmates of private institutions and the 
unfortunate who hve from hand to mouth, and those 
saved from starvation by the charity of their fellow 
poor, the amount of American pauperism in this land 
of plenty will exceed the pauperism of any other coun- 
try in the world except England, whose financial 
policy we have adopted and whose institutions we are 
striving to imitate. 

It should be borne in mind that the nation con- 
tributes for the relief of the poor and to private char- 
ities, the enormous sum of nearly three hundred and 
fifty millions of dollars annually, and the calls for 
charity in the shape of more money are greatly on the 
increase. 

All this gives food for thought, and must demon- 
strate, even on a superficial examination, that our 
boasted prosperity is a humbug, and that the only 
meaning and application of it lies in the so-called 
^'general welfare," which is the prosperity of the few 
and the increase of poverty among the many. Our 
grand table, groaning with eatables and drinkables, is 
fenced ofif and made inaccessible to the multitude who 
know that plenty exists, for they can see it, but they 
cannot reach it without money to buy. All they do get 
are the crumbs that fall from this modern Dives' table. 

There cannot be any valid objection to a man's liv- 
ing on turkey if his taste runs that way and he can 
afiford the price, but there seem to be numerous objec- 
tions to a poor man's earning more than the price of 
Lis daily bread. If the man who dines on turkey 
could be prevailed upon to share his bird with the 
other man who has none, both would be satisfied and 
the entente cordiale between them would be a beautiful 
illustration of the brotherhood of man. But alas! the 
turkey man cannot be persuaded to surrender any 
portion of his savory dish, though it gives him an 
apoplexy to devour it all, hence it is necessary for his 



EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY. 259 

own good to employ force. Not brute force, under- 
stand, but the same amount of force should be used to 
compel him to surrender part of his turkey as he uses 
to prevent you and me from having any. What can 
be fairer than this moderate and sensible application of 
the law of retaliation? 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE UPSHOT. 

Being what a man has a right to be and to do; what 

he might do if he would, can do if he will, and 

ought to do because he can. 

A citizen of the United States is expected to rely 
upon his own energy and ability to acquire a compe- 
tence for his support and for that of his family, if he 
have one, or for those dependent upon him. He may 
be unable to reach this goal for two reasons: 

First — On account of infirmities. 

Second — The interference of others. 

In the first category are included mental defects, 
which make it impossible for him to be other than a 
charge upon the State, as would also be the case of 
a temporary or chronic malady. Of course, it will be 
understood that we are assuming the case of an in- 
dividual who starts out in life to "make a living," as we 
say, and has nothing but his natural abilities to begin 
with. He is fresh from the schools, and is ready and 
desirous to become a good citizen. He is neither an 
idiot, a lunatic, an Indian ward of the nation, nor a 
Chinaman or other Oriental protected by a treaty su- 
perior to our Constitution. He is a common everyday 
American citizen, in whom are vested certain rights 
and privileges, one of which is the right to provide 
for his personal welfare and that of those dependent 
upon him. Whatever may be his physical infirmities, 
unless they are such as render him entirely dependent 
upon others, he is capable of doing something, though 

260 



THE UPSHOT. 261 

it may not be fully adequate to his needs, in which 
case, it is clear, he will require some outside assist- 
ance. In this respect he may be said to be quasi de- 
pendent, that is, not entirely dependent. Notwith- 
standing his condition of quasi dependence, he is 
bound to exercise his independence as far as he can, 
for no individual has the right to be a burden upon 
others except in so far as it is impossible for him to be 
otherwise. Those totally disabled by nature, or who 
have become so through accidental circumstances, 
are not to be considered here at all, because the laws of 
humanity inherent in the State provide for them, or 
should provide for them, without imposing the burden 
of their care upon others or compelling them to beg for 
charity. By the State are not meant the intermeddling 
societies and organizations referred to in another chap- 
ter, but the State itself, whose duty it is to receive its 
helpless citizens into its own, actual care, for they are 
none the less citizens, and in the full possession of all 
their rights as such, notwithstanding they have lost the 
power of exjercising and maintaining them. The whole 
responsibility rests upon the State and cannot be law- 
fully delegated to irresponsible parties under the guise 
of "charity." Our system of government is more than 
a mere name; it is not a makeshift or pretence to en- 
able its administrators and managers to rob the people 
or permit others to do so. 

Neither should there be included in this first cate- 
gory those who become helpless through vicious hab- 
its or rash business ventures, which drag them into in- 
solvency and poverty. These, however, and all who 
are "unfortunate" should be given opportunities to re- 
trieve themselves, and if they are ready and willing, 
they may be placed in the second category, but if un- 
willing they should be compelled to do whatever they 
are competent to perform, or taught some useful occu- 
pation suitable to their several capacities, and kept at 



262 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

such employment until sufficiently redeemed to justify 
being placed in the second category. 

In the case of those citizens above referred to, no 
difficulties can possibly arise, unless they exist in the 
interference of irresponsible societies and organiza- 
tions, attempting to relieve the State of duties which 
belong exclusively to it, and who, by their officious 
intermeddling, create the most inciJrable evils and tam- 
per with the most sacred rights of the citizen. All 
these should be placed under the direct control and 
supervision of the State, in charge of its own responsi- 
ble officials. Whatever rights of property may be in- 
volved the State is certainly powerful and able enough 
to properly and equitably adjust, but the interference 
with the duties of the State in regard to the care of its 
citizens, whether adults or infants, should be forever 
ended. 

When it comes to those in the second category, dif- 
ficulties spring up on all sides. 

It is assumed, and the assumption is based upon rea- 
son, common sense and the spirit of our institutions, 
that when the State educates its citizens it does so on 
an implied understanding which amounts to a con- 
tract that when the specified education shall have been 
completed, the citizen shall possess the right to con- 
tinue his career and exercise his right and duty to be- 
come a good citizen, by providing for himself without 
being a charge upon others or upon the State, as in 
the cases first mentioned. This is not only his duty, 
but his right, and if he is prevented or interfered with 
in the performance of that duty or in the exercise of 
that right, without fault on his part, it is clearly a 
wrong, and it becomes the duty of the State to remove 
the obstruction. If the aid of the State, its protective 
arm, be withheld, it is because there is a defect in our 
laws or else they are not properly administered. 
Wherefore it is quite proper and wise for the citizen to 



THE UPSHOT. 263 

supply the defect in the law, and remove the malad- 
ministrators from of^ce, electing such officials as can 
be relied upon to properly administer the laws in ac- 
cordance with their spirit, without attaching the high- 
est importance to their letter. 

There is no law, whether mandatory or directory, 
prohibitive or permissive, civil or criminal, under our 
system that has not behind its mere wording a spirit 
superior to that wording; a principal of equity and fair- 
ness which must prevail or be observed and which 
would always be observed and prevail were it not for 
corrupt and unjust judges and incompetent, brutal of- 
ficials. Our laws are not religious dogmas, the ob- 
servance of which is intended to be enforced by means 
of the rack and thumbscrew, cauldrons of boiling 
pitch or any cruel methods. 

There are many obstructions which interfere with 
and defraud the citizen of his rights, and totally de- 
feat the object of the State in providing him with an 
education and fitting him to be a good citizen. It is 
a sorry thing to say, but experience and observation 
sanction the truth of the saying, that the State not only 
does not remove the obstacles and hindrances in the 
way of the citizen, but sanctions and approves them. 
Nay, more, the State openly aids in perpetuating these 
interferences with the rights of the citizens, and aids in 
defeating its ovv^n objects in making him a citizen. 
It has even used the public moneys to prevent their 
removal, as it has done during panics in Wall Street, 
when it would have been of incalculable benefit to the 
public if the whole robbers' den had been blotted out 
of existence. When the people lose confidence 
through the very efforts of the powers that be to de- 
stroy it, they rush at once to withdraw their money 
from the places of deposit, but the government steps 
in to aid the banks, ostensibly to restore a confidence 
which it has destroyed. When the banks and the spec- 



264 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

ulators make a run on the people and take away all 
their money, does the government come to their res- 
cue? Certainly not, for in its misapplication of the 
blessings of "public welfare" that part of the spirit and 
letter of our organic law is limited to the money power. 

If the citizen desire to learn a trade he is met with 
a bar put up by the trades unions, a bar so rigid that 
the son of a laborer is not permitted to learn his 
father's trade. This bar is of no benefit to the cause of 
labor, and it is erected upon the basis of a false theory 
of political economy, that competition in labor will re- 
duce wages. But however false the theory may be, 
there is a plausible reason for the bar of the labor 
unions, and when that reason no longer exists the bar 
will be removed. To the reason, therefore, why a citi- 
zen is prohibited from learning a trade or from pur- 
suing any occupation he may be fitted for, a prohibi- 
tion which drives him into pauperism and crime. 

There is more than one reason why an American 
ciitzen cannot exercise his rights as such; there are 
three principal reasons: 

First: In an apparent conflict between capital and 
labor, which is not a conflict on the part of labor, but 
a fight for existence. On the part of capital it is a 
conspiracy to bring labor to its knees and beg for such 
wages as the mercy of capital may think fit to allow. 

Second: In the absorption or control of all of the 
money and circulating medium of the country by 
banks, corporations, trusts, syndicates and other 
speculators. 

Third: In the enormous amount of individual credit 
money forced upon the people in consequence of a 
grossly inadequate government circulating medium. 

There is a remedy for all of these unhealthy con^- 
ditions, the opposition to the administering of which 
is purely sentimental ostensibly, but based upon the 
most intensely selfish grounds, grounds which, if 



THE UPSHOT. 265 

sufficiently powerful to prevent the operation of any 
remedy, would dethrone the Czar of Russia, decapi- 
tate the Sultan of Turkey or create a revolution in 
staid old England. 

These three reasons why an American citizen is 
deprived of his right to exercise the independence of 
his citizenship and his children forced to the barroom, 
into pauperism or crime, arise from no fault of his own. 
He is the innocent party, but he is forced to be the suf- 
ferer, and does not possess any means of redress or al- 
leviation except as hinted at throughout this book, in 
the ballot. He and his fellows have no quarrel with 
the system of government, but he has a most righteous 
quarrel with the unequal and unjust administration of 
its affairs. As is said in the '^Preliminary Remarks," 
referring to James G. Blaine, "This country will sup- 
port many more millions than it at present contains," 
so that the trouble is not in inadequate productions, 
but it is in our administrators of the affairs of the gov- 
ernment foisting upon the people the radically wrong 
systems which millions upon millions of paupers from 
their graves in the old world cry out against. These 
three causes which lie at the root of our troubles are 
not considered worth mentioning by our political econ- 
omists, all of whom run after definitions and confess 
that they cannot find the real cause of poverty and 
starvation in a land of plenty. We live in an age of 
theories, and instead of thinking out the problems that 
almost solve themselves, we turn away our eyes from 
their visible demonstration and seek more theories 
in books which never have benefited the human race 
or filled an empty stomach except in charity. Puffed 
up with the vanity of words, men argue themselves 
into hoarseness, and when speechless, take to books 
and do more idle talking through their pages. The 
laws of nature and of common sense are changed by 
crowing hens and cackling cocks, and the egg they 
hope to hatch is always barren. 



266 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

The milk of human kindness has become a sour, 
putrid mess filled with the stinking flies of dead 
theories, upon which miore are cast to likewise die and 
smell of corruption. To him who would strain the 
mess or let it settle down to save the supernatant 
goodness, the cry is always, "Hands off," and so 'tis 
always stirred and never clears. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

SEIZIxNG THE OPPORTUNITIES. 

In the general grab game going on, we must not let 
everything get away from us. 

Throughout the preceding chapters it is intimated 
that the quarrel between capital and labor grows out 
of the false assumption on the part of capital of the 
right to dominate labor and the unceasing struggle of 
labor to prevent that domination and maintain an 
equality of right, but it may be repeated here without 
wearing out the idea, that capital, being the product 
of labor, is not and cannot be its enemy; indeed, the 
destruction of labor means the destruction of capital. 
Let the question assume the nature of a dilemma, one 
horn of which would be the last above mentioned 
proposition and the other this: If labor destroys capi- 
tal it destroys its own product and thereby extin- 
guishes itself. The dilemma itself demonstrates that 
capital and labor are essential to each other's existence. 
The matter is not one depending upon the tiresome 
definitions of political economists, it resolves itself into 
a question of absolute, indisputable fact. Wherefore, 
then, it is proper to say, that when there is no labor 
there can be no capital, and even applying the idea 
of ."accumulations" to the idea of capital, it may be 
said with equal truth that when there is no capital 
there is no labor. 

It does not require a microscope or a telescope to 
learn that both labor and capital are existing, patent 
facts. To this should be attached another self-evi- 
267 



268 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

dent fact, to wit, that all of labor is not employed and 
all of capital is not utilized, or, to speak in newspaper 
language, a multitude are starving for want of work 
and the banks are "stuffed" with money. The reason 
of this is perfectly clear; the money is not in circula- 
tion, or, which is the same thing, capital is not in- 
vested, whence labor starves for want of work. 

This brings us to the second reason set forth in the 
last chapter why an American citizen is unable to ex- 
ercise his rights, to wit: "The absorption or control of 
all of the money or circulating medium by the banks, 
corporations, trusts, syndicates and other speculators." 

That this is true is an indisputable fact, for no man 
goes to labor to borrow money, because labor has 
none; it is constantly in need of money; it is only at 
the banks and of the others that money can be had. 
This also does not require a magnifying glass to per- 
ceive. It may be very true that the money in the 
banks belongs to the depositors and to labor, 
though the courts hold differently and regard all of 
the money deposited in banks as the property of the 
banks, but that does not prove anything against the 
culmination of the idea sought to be conveyed by this 
chapter, but rather confirms it, for it is, then, in the 
control of the banks, etc., who neither give it away nor 
throw it away. It is confessedly the people's money, 
at any rate, and is the circulating medium. But it is 
used by the banks to loan out and make money with, 
and it is clutched in a tight grasp until as much is 
squeezed out of it as is possible through the agencies 
of the corporations, trusts, syndicates and speculators. 
Admitting it to be the people's money, it would be im- 
possible for the people to withdraw it all at once, no 
matter how much they might desire it, for it would not 
be there to be drawn out. If a general "run" were to 
occur that would be what is known as a "panic," and 
the banks would be obliged to close their doors. But 
before that could happen the general government 



SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITIES. 269 

would feel jitstified in preventing such a calamity that 
would amount to what political economists term "a 
universal bankruptcy," and step in with its entire 
treasury, and if that proved insufficient, it would create 
more money in the shape of bank notes, ready for dis- 
tribution among the banks of the country. It has 
done this before and will do it again. 

Now, here is a singular condition of things ; the peo- 
ple in the exercise of their right to their own money 
drive the country into a universal smash by trying to 
take possession of it, and in exercising their right of 
possession compel the government to come in with 
the public money and the newly created money — call- 
ing government credit notes ''money," inasmuch as 
they answer the purpose of money. It will be per- 
ceived that the general government recognizes the 
right of the people to take their money out of the 
banks, but steps in and inflates the currency to prevent 
injury to the banks; an act which, if the people were 
gold bugs, would create an uproar and be denounced 
in political platforms as a reduction of the value of 
their money, but being the people's money, the gov- 
ernment does not consider the morals of the thing so 
much as it does in the case of the money power. But 
why should the government be put in this position? 
Have not the people put their money into banks, and 
if it is not stolen, is it not there for them to take out 
again? It is not there, and it is stolen, not criminally, 
but metaphorically. Banks do not bury their money, 
nor hide it away in old teapots and stockings, it is 
substituted by individual credit money; and this brings 
us to the third reason why an American citizen suffers 
from want of work, which is, "The enormous amiount 
of credit money forced upon the people," the latter 
part of the third reason being omitted just now, to be 
referred to later on. 

We are far from being an insolvent nation, the as- 
sessed value of our real and personal property, as the> 



270 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

appear upon the various assessment rolls of the coun- 
try, excluding all public property, churches and other 
exempt institutions and other things, as government 
bonds, and property which escapes taxation by vari- 
ous devices, all of which will amount to a third more, 
amounts to the aggregate sum of about thirty thou- 
sand millions of dollars, to which, adding the property 
not taxed, the amount reaches forty thousand millions 
of dollars' worth of property in the United States at 
an assessed value which is very much less than the 
real value. Against this are real estate and chattel 
mortgages amounting to over eight thousand millions 
of dollars; individual credit money amounting to more 
than five thousand millions of dollars, exclusive of the 
promissory notes and bonds secured to be paid by the 
mortgages, and we have a grand total of over thirteen 
thousand millions of dollars of individual money afloat, 
without counting shares of stocks, all to be paid by 
somebody, not all at once, but still to be paid or re- 
deemed. 

But how shall it be paid? Not by renewals, for the 
debt still remains with its deadly interest. It must be 
paid in money, and, allowing the ratio of one dollar to 
do the work of ten, there is not enough actual money 
in the country to pay it or to redeem this mass of 
credit money. The real ratio of actual money to indi- 
vidual credit money is not more than five per cent, 
actual money to about ninety-five per cent, of credit 
money, and it will be difficult for any one to say how ' 
it is going to pay it. If it is good by reason of its 
being secured upon the volume of property of the 
country, why is it that the government can not issue 
more credit money of its own on the strength of the 
some security. It is certain that five per centum of 
actual money can not be made to pay ninety-five per 
centum of credit money, and, in fact, it does not do it. 
Every efifort has been made to stretch the five per 
centum out as far as possible, but the only result has 



SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITIES. 271 

been to increase the credit money and decrease the 
actual money. Here is where the question of labor 
comes in. 

It requires actual money to pay labor, but the five 
per centum is all there is, and that cannot be used 
except spasmodically, because the business of the 
country, in the shape of individual credit money, needs 
all of it and more with it. Actual money comes from 
labor, and can not flow through the channels of trade 
from any other source, it being sufficient to close up 
our manufactories to demonstrate that fact. So it 
happens that the five per centum of actual money be- 
ing all required to make good the credit money, labor 
must go without. This is the reason why labor is in- 
sufficiently employed, and it creates a bad condition of 
things which affects every department of trade and 
commerce. This leads us to the latter part of the third 
reason why an American citizen does not get along. 
"There is a grossly inadequate government "circulating 
medium." 

All sorts of theories have been broached, all kinds 
of suggestions made to correct this great and grow- 
ing deficiency, and everybody has been tinkering with 
the financial condition of the country for several dec- 
ades, but none of them seem to have reached the point 
that it is the business and duty of the government to 
prevent the individual credit money from swamping 
the government money. The practical effect of the 
government coming forward to sustain the banks in 
times of general or great panic is to preserve an equi- 
librium, but when the banks and other money crea- 
tions make a run upon the people, and create great 
suffering for lack of work and money, the government 
does not appear to even dream that there is any such 
thing as an equilibrium. On the contrary, the gen- 
eral public is considered very much of the nature of a 
pack horse, and laden with as many burdens as it will 
carry without perishing; indeed, it is deemed "unpa- 



272 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

triotlc" to rebel. This is noticeable in the constant 
persistence of the national government to still further 
decrease the actual money and increase the individual 
credit money by restricting the currency. Every re- 
striction of the circulating medium comes out of labor, 
for labor does not produce credit money, but produces 
and is compelled to rely upon actual money. An ad- 
dition of one per cent, to our volume of credit money 
as it now stands, would be felt by labor in a reduction 
of wages and in a great falling off of the number em- 
ployed; in fact, poverty, want and famine would in- 
crease enormously, but the purchasing power of a gold 
dollar would be increased. When credit money shall 
reach par, that is to say, when the amount of the cir- 
culating medium shall be only one per centum to one 
hundred per centum of credit money, then will come 
ruin and desolation, the immensity of which, and its 
reactionary effect, will frighten even the money power 
into loosening its hold upon the people, and it v/ill 
then discover that in reaching the summit of its hopes 
to hold the people in abject slavery, it is in danger of 
toppling over and falling down the other side. 

The real contest which confronts the labor unions, 
is in forcing the government to protect the people 
against the designs of the money power by increasing 
its circulating medium to an amount which will pre- 
vent individual credit money from absorbing it. In 
i860 it was determined by the government that there 
should be twenty per centum of government circulat- 
ing m-edium to eighty per centum of credit money, to 
properly carry on the business of the country, and 
whenever the government money has been kept at that 
ratio there were no complaints of ''hard times;" indeed, 
at that time the labor unions were not engaged in a 
struggle against poverty and starvation and the slav- 
ery of capital. When the government, to save itself, 
issued so much paper money that the world waited 
with bated breath to see it drop into ruin, it prospered 



SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITIES. 273 

and grew stronger and it carried its citizens up with it 
into prosperity. But when the speculators and trusts 
began to exert their influence over the administration 
and to make more money for themselves in a speedy 
manner, they persuaded the government to restrict its 
currency. Then it lost its own grasp and fell and with 
it fell its citizens, and they lie groveling to-day where 
too much honesty to money sharks and too much dis- 
honesty to the people flung them. Instead of driving 
the thieves out of his house, the owner and father per- 
mitted them to rob his own family and divided the 
guilty money with the thieves. 

The financial issue must com.e up again and it will 
come up again in such shape that the wailings of a 
poverty stricken people will be heard. The morality 
which permits a creditor to send his debtor into pov- 
erty and starvation will be so applied as to prevent 
him, and if those who back up the grasping creditor, 
to the detriment of those of his own household, per- 
sist in their efforts to enslave them, they must be 
taught 2L lesson they will remember for all time. 

The government makes the most glaring discrimina- 
tion between its own citizens and is, figuratively speak- 
ing, holding its own pet lamb so that the butcher may 
cut its throat. What kind of an administration is it 
that will permit its banks to keep only one dollar in 
ten of its deposits, declaring that to be the settled rule 
of political economy when the greed of the money 
power is to be satisfied, but when it comes to applying 
the same rule to the people who do not ask to become 
rich, but ask for work and bread only, it turns away 
and declares it would not be honest? With six hun- 
dred millions of coin redemption money, it issues only 
one thousand five hundred millions of credit money in 
bank notes, and would if it could restrict the circulat- 
ing medium to dollar for dollar. The people have it 
in their power to change the complexion of this state 
of affairs, for if it is not stopped soon it may happen 



274 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

that the money power will keep possession of the gov- 
ernment and permit no one not in accord with them to 
hold office. It came very near that at the last Presi- 
dential election, but it is assumed that the people are 
neither asleep nor hypnotized by the "bosses," to the 
extent of yielding up their rights without a struggle. 



CHAPTER XXXVIL 

THE ONLY WAY. 

That there is "only one way" to destroy Poverty is 

proven by the fact that nobody has ever 

discovered any other way. 

Let no man be carried away by the idea that the 
mere manufacture of money by the government would 
help matters, for there might be thousands of mihions 
created and stacked up as high as the national Capitol 
building and still leave the country plunged in the low- 
est depths of poverty and starvation. It would not 
help a single individual or relieve a starving citizen 
by so much as a loaf of bread. The government is not 
a vast labor machine, it creates money, but does not 
produce it, and therefore the government money, 
whether gold, silver, paper, tin or leather, cannot be- 
come part of the circulating medium of the country un- 
til it has been produced by somebody; and it must be 
bought like anything else, to become valuable. 
Nature grows wheat for the farmicr, but it is a valueless 
article until it has been harvested and afterwards sold. 
If there were na purchasers it would be idle to grow 
wheat. The same reasoning applies to money, the 
government enacting the role of nature, whose work is 
unavailing if not utilized. But the money created by 
the government is not produced by it, no more than 
is the wheat produced by nature. Behind nature and 
behind the government is the power that sets in mo- 
tion the laws governing both nature and the govern- 
ment and enables each to carry on its operations. This 
power is labor and labor alone ; without it there can be 

275 



2:]^ THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

no money, no crops. Let him who disputes this truth 
concentrate ah his mental powers upon an acre of 
ground and try to raise wheat, or let him look steadily 
at a gold or silver dollar or any kind of money and ex- 
pect it to reproduce itself. He may add another dol- 
lar to it, but that is not producing it, for the dollar he 
adds has already been produced by somebody. Noth- 
ing will come of his mental or psychological efforts, 
he must get down to labor. A man who steals money 
or a usurious money lender does not produce money; 
they absorb what has been produced and diminish the 
wage of the producer by the amount they absorb. 

Let us once more and for the last time revert to the 
evils of a shortage in the circulating medium. 

There comes a time in the life of every business man 
when he must pay his debts or go out of business. It. 
is impossible for him to do a cash business for the very 
simple reason that there is not money enough to en- 
able him to do it. No, not enough money in the whole 
world. Let this idea be attached to all of our credit 
money. It must be paid, and paid out of the five per 
centum of actual money, which we have stated in the 
last chapter is all there is to be had. The manufactur- 
er of the credit money, the maker of the promissory 
note, to meet his obligation, naturally turns to the man 
in front of him and demands payment of the credit 
money which he holds, and out of which he expects to 
meet his own obligations, but not obtaining sufficient, 
he must apply to the bank for a discount. This may 
be refused, and generally is refused, not because the 
note is not considered good, but because money is 
"short," an excuse which is a subterfuge, because 
money is always short, but in this case the object of 
the subterfuge is to force the merchant into the hands 
of some broker, so that the banker and broker together 
can exact two or three per centum per month for the 
use of the money. This exaction amounts to more 
than the merchant has made or can make in his busi- 



THE ONLY WAY. 277 

ness. The banker is only "short" of money to the 
merchant, to the broker money is "long," the broker 
being the secret agent of the bank, every bank having 
its broker, as was explained in another chapter. No- 
body ever heard of a banker suffering for money or 
starving to death. Even should the bank "burst" he 
can always have his "cold bottle and bird." The very 
idea of the word "banker" brings to the mind a vision 
of pursiness, stately tread, fatness, softly rolling car- 
riages, fine wines, diamonds, decollete garments, 
opera, harlots, et id omne genus. It is the hoi polloi, 
the crowd, the common herd, the people who are told 
to have confidence, who give up their money to the 
bankers' enrichment, wdio go without and grow poor 
and starve and cannot afford bread let alone the "cold 
bottle and bird." Idle men they are, who sit sur- 
rounded by bags of idle money like great spiders with 
the threads of their strong web firmly hooked to every 
business man, waiting for the maturity of credit 
money, and when that day comes the victim is drawn 
into the den to pay or be devoured if he does not. 
When he is drained of his life blood he is throv/n out 
upon the garbage heap of insolvency and poverty and 
his place taken by a fresh, young victim, unwarned 
and unarmed against the blandishments of credit 
money. 

The relief can come in only one way, in the shape of 
more actual money, whether it be called gold, silver, 
paper or tin, but it must be produced before it can 
be created. Out of nothing nothing comes : Ex nihilo 
nihil fit. The Almighty did not create the earth out 
of nothing, there was something produced out of which 
it was created. 

It has been said, and all political economists agree 
upon the proposition, that money can only come to 
us as the product of labor. The banker and money 
shark do not produce it; they and their kind are the 
ones who get it away from those who do produce it.' 



278 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

This is fully explained in a preceding chapter. It is 
also stated that there never was a dollar of money that 
produced itself, somebody must have produced it, and 
that somebody is always labor, and will always be 
labor, which is the only actual producer of money. 

Our condition is now such that labor can no more 
produce money than can a farm wheat without a 
farmer, a blacksmith a horseshoe without the iron, but 
our necessities demand that money be produced, and 
evidently the easiest, simplest and quickest way is the 
best. 

Without attempting to argue the silver question, for 
this book has nothing whatever to do with "Bryan- 
ism," "Populism," or any other "ism" any more than 
it has to do with ''gold bugs," it is too plain and pal- 
pable a fact to be denied, that silver is the readiest and 
quickest money that can be produced. It is a product 
of the earth just as much as the wheat or potatoes the 
farmer digs out and cuts down. The cost of the pro- 
duction of silver, or the wage of labor in producing it, 
however, is greater than that of any other product 
of the soil. By the destruction of bimetalism, labor 
was also destroyed by prohibiting labor from produc- 
ing it, and labor was cut off, annihilated, to the extent 
of affecting disastrously a part of our population 
amounting to twenty-five millions of people at the 
very lowest estimate, and that loss to labor went into 
the pockets of the money power to their further en- 
richment. The industry of silver mining was stopped 
short, and there was no product of labor, consequently 
no labor. Labor could not go elsewhere, because there 
was no place to go; it was annihilated, consumed like 
bread that is eaten, impossible of rehabilitation. 

It is admitted by all, even the opponents of bimetal- 
ism allege it as a reason for their monometalism, that 
from fifty to sixty per centum of the product of silver 
goes into the pockets of labor. The wildest dreams of 
the most disgraceful and conscienceless usurer never 



THE ONLY WAY. 279 

contemplated such a return for his money, and it is a 
shame to say it, but it is true nevertheless, that work- 
ing men themselves were persuaded into jealousy and 
envy at what they thought was an outrageous price for 
the labor of their fellow laborers, to such an extent 
that they combined with capital to destroy them, little 
recking of the fact that they were reducing their own 
wages by preventing labor from producing money to 
compete with capital. They did not understand that 
the amount realized by the producer of silver was out 
of a new product, and not wages; it was an addition to 
the circulating medium which passed through the 
hands of labor into the various channels of trade, and 
offset by the amount produced, credit money, effacing 
it to the amount of the silver production whether it 
went into money or the arts. It was sixty cents more 
money put into circulation, that could not get into cir- 
culation in any other manner. They measured every 
sixty cents produced by labor out of silver upon the 
same measure as interest money, although they might 
have known that interest money is a payment for the 
use of money, a charge upon money and not a product, 
and therefore no help to the circulating medium as was 
and is the production of silver. It was labor that 
created something that did not exist before and which 
could not exist until labor had produced it. Labor 
destroyed labor and is now suffering for its stupidity, 
while the tempters look on and laugh as they charge 
it with the v/illing authorship of its own calamities. 
"Ye shall be as gods," said a serpent once upon a time, 
but the willingly tempted and their descendants are far 
from being gods. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE ONLY WAY. 

(Concluded.) 

The result of following ''the only way," will be the 

annihilation of Poverty, and the destruction 

of many other unbearable things. 

If labor should produce enough silver money to 
reach an equality with credit money, the result would 
be the extinction or the curtailment and control of 
credit money, and the masses of the people would be 
benefited by the amount destroyed. It is plain that 
in such case both labor and business would not be 
restricted to the inadequate five per centum of actual 
money out of which to pay labor and meet the obliga- 
tions of credit money. There would be then sufficient 
actual money to compensate and relieve both. Is it 
not clear that this would be the result, and is it not 
also clear that if this result should be accompHshed 
that labor would at once be relieved and the destruc- 
tion of poverty begin? Where else can a beginning 
be made, or where else has it ever been made? It is the 
wolf that cries "honest" money to the lamb and ap- 
propriates the whole stream. By the continued restric- 
tion of the circulating medium it is true that money 
becomes more valuable, but to whom? To labor? No, 
that is impossible, for labor is prevented from produc- 
ing it and is compelled to rely upon accumulations of 
capital, which remain stationary. Labor becomes the 
servant, the slave of capital, and not its equal. It de- 
pends upon capital and not upon its own productions. 

280 



THE ONLY WAY. 281 

This is the most extraordinary reversal of all the rules 
and canons of political economy the world ever saw. 
It is destroying the soul that does exist even under 
systems of government where the people are not free 
and converting our own enlightened and free system 
into a money despotism that never before existed in the 
world, even under systems that held the lash of slavery 
over its victims. They did permit their slaves to pro- 
duce and fed them out of the product, but we say labor 
shall not produce and shall not be fed; the ox is muz- 
zled. The production of gold is not an answer, for if 
all the labor in the country were to work at the extrac- 
tion of gold from the soil it could not produce enough 
in a thousand years to relieve the pressure of credit 
money. It is incapable of being suf^ciently produced 
by the very nature of the difificulities of its extraction. 
The real contest between capital and labor is in the 
production of money by labor, and not in the mere at- 
tempt to secure high wages, for without the produc- 
tion of money by labor there can be no high wages, in- 
deed wages must become lower still. 

This is not a question of cheap money or dear 
money, honest money or dishonest money; such ex- 
pressions are meaningless and absurd. It is a question 
of more money, whether it be gold, silver, paper, leath- 
er or peppermint lozenges. But it is idle to go into 
ridiculous comparisons; what is sought is the destruc- 
tion of poverty, and it can only be destroyed by pro- 
viding a greater quantity of circulating medium, and 
that can only be produced by labor producing silver, 
which is the most available and easiest material af- 
forded by nature to give relief, withal the quickest. 
Monometalism is death, bimetalism is life, and when 
labor is fully employed in producing that which will 
afford relief there will not be any more starvation, no 
more abject poverty. When the people rise to the 
fact that their salvation is in labor producing a circu- 
lating medium, and permit labor to produce it by turn- 



282 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

ing silver into the channels of trade, which is the only 
way money can get into circulation, and accept the 
free coinage of silver as the only remedy, the idle 
holder of idle money will be compelled to do as every 
business man must do to give his money an earning 
power, to wit: he must employ labor to accomplish it. 
The multitude of unemployed would not be looking 
for political positions to procure bread, for they would 
be engaged in their natural occupations, and the office 
would seek the man, giving us better satisfaction and 
better government. Our conditiomw^ould be the very 
reverse of the present one. 

Competition now is the unavailing struggle of the 
poor man with the rich man, and against concentra- 
tions of capital; then it would be the competition of 
capital against or with labor, and that old and forgot- 
ten but true maxim: "Competition is the life of trade," 
would resume its significance. Contractors would 
be seeking labor and labor would not be compelled to 
run after contractors and beg for bread or small 
wages, just enough to sustain a miserable existence. 
Instead of one hundred men struggling to get one 
man's place, every man would find and fit a place. 
There would be no more use for Labor Unions, for the 
strife between capital and labor would be at an end, 
and every man would be his own labor union. The 
man who lives on usury would not be able to drive 
his merciless bargains, he would be compelled to come 
down to his level and be a producer or submit to the 
fate of the producers he is now starving. The man 
fitted to be a bank president would not be driving a 
coal cart, nor would the man fitted only to drive a coal 
cart be a bank president. Trusts and syndicates would 
not control all our ''honest" money, and the small 
butcher around the corner would not see his customers 
flocking to three-million-dollar department stores to 
save a penny on a pound of meat. 

Would all these and many others things be accom- 



THE ONLY WAY. 283 

plished by the free and unlimited coinage of silver? 
Certainly, but not because it is silver, but because it is 
the only available material that will or can afford re- 
lief. Try to get away from the partisan idea and come 
down to something that means "public good" and 
"general welfare" extended to all the people and not 
restricted to optim.istic "calamity howlers," who cite 
the Scriptures, as does the Devil, for a purpose, and 
that purpose is the replenishing of their pockets by 
mortgaging yours. Understand that the man who is 
gaining money gains it out of you, squeezes it out of 
you by reason of your necessities, and that if you are 
producing money, you do not need him. He is fully 
aware of that, hence his cry of your dishonesty in de- 
priving him of the only visible means of support be- 
tween him and the jail on a charge of vagrancy. The 
narne of this money making shark is "Legion," and if 
you have even casually read the foregoing pages you 
will find him and his peculiarities delineated. If you 
possess the spirit an American citizen should possess 
it will not require much thinking to awaken you to the 
fact that it is time to turn about and travel in a direc- 
tion contrary to our present road. The rut we have 
been traveling in has not led us to the Promised 
Land, and there is grave doubt whether it points in 
that direction. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

RUBBISH CLEARED AWAY. 

The failure of experimental schemes should put us on 
our guard against mere theories. 

All systems of political economy, all plans for the 
relief of distressed humanity, fall with the weight of 
their own defects when confronted with the universal 
demand and necessity for more money. In the ab- 
sence of that one great desideratum, it is immaterial, 
likewise irrelevant, whether wages spring from capital 
or whether capital originates in labor, for it is so plain 
that he who runs may read, that if there is no capital 
there can be no wages, and when there are no wages 
there i& no capital. Even assuming that some labor 
originates in accumulations of capital, which labor 
must have produced at some time, the labor produced 
by them would be as Hmited as the accumulations are 
stationary. Accumulations of capital must not be 
understood to mean "accretions" or additions to 
money any more than interest, for accretions or addi- 
tions to the circulating medium can only occur when 
labor has created dollars which did not exist before. 

When a man increases his capital by one million of 
dollars, or one dollar for that matter, he has not in- 
creased the circulating medium by a penny, that re- 
maining the same. 

The increase in the capital of the man referred to is 
merely the withdrawal of so much money from one 
place of deposit and its deposit in another place, or 
the mere change of the name of the depositor at some 

284 



RUBBISH CLEARED AWAY. 285 

bank. What one man gains another loses, and vice 
versa. It is always robbing Peter to pay Paul. The 
volume of capital is not increased, nor is it diminished 
by addition to or substraction from the store of an in- 
dividual capitalist or of all of the capitalists combined, 
nor by any amount of shuffling, any more than a pack 
of cards is increased or diminished by its shuffling. 

When a number of men cannot find work in one 
locality they go to another where they may possibly 
find it. Then they naturally say: "There is more 
money in such and such a place than there is in such 
and such another place," hence they find work. But 
the truth is there is more money in one locality than in 
another because it has been shifted to the locality 
where work can be found. There is neither more 
money nor is there any more work, for work can only 
be had at one of the two localities and not at both, and 
the reason of that is because labor is not afforded an 
opportunity to produce or create the money. 

Take the case of a grain farm -for further illustra- 
tion: Labqr is employed from the cultivation of the 
ground and the planting of the seed to the harvesting 
of the crop ready for market. Here is something pro- 
duced out of the ground, or out of the raw material, 
which is the same thing, which did not exist before. 
Extend the idea to the entire grain product of the 
United States. This will mean an annual creation of 
over two thousand millions of bushels of corn; five 
hundred millions of bushels of wheat; eight hundred 
millions of bushels of oats; ninety millions of bushels 
of barley; thirty millions of bushels of rye, and sixteen 
millions of bushels of buckwheat, to which may be 
added fifty million tons of hay; three hundred million 
bushels of potatoes; two thousand million pounds of 
hops, and a myriad of other things, all of which are 
new creations, accretions, produced by labor, and in 
the price of them is included the advance money to 
wages. None of these products are worth anything 



286 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

beyond the mere uses of consumption until turned in- 
to money by their sale in the market. But we have not 
enough money in this country to buy our own pro- 
ducts, so recourse must be had to credit money to 
make up the deficiency. Even then there is nothing 
gained, because the volume of the circulating medium 
is not affected, and there being no money to be made 
here, on that account, it is shipped and sold in a for- 
eign market. Here is where our circulating medium is 
increased by the amount of the money received from 
foreign countries, and that money is the profits real- 
ized out of the production of labor in producing or 
creating the products mentioned. This, in 1898, 
amounted to about one hundred and seventy-three 
millions of dollars in gold, and it was a new creation 
coming from labor just as much as if miners had dug 
it out of the ground, and it was made an addition to 
the circulating medium by the government. The for- 
eign gold received for the wheat Avas exchanged for 
government circulating medium, which thus got into 
circulation and was turned into the channels of trade. 
But these one hundred and seventy-three millions 
of dollars, accreted money, represents a very small 
portion of the individual credit money, although it 
took the place of the latter to that extent, so small a 
portion, indeed, as to be scarcely perceptible. It ele- 
vated the per capita amount of circulating medium 
slightly, so as to reach about twenty-three dollars, but 
still left the circulating medium short of the annual 
taxes by about three dollars per capita. That is, as 
has already been stated, the people of the United States 
owe the government in taxes all of the circulating 
medium and three dollars more per capita. This is 
not an alarmingly prosperous condition of things, ex- 
cept so far as a few speculators are concerned, men 
who put the profits in their pockets, and do not add a 
single dollar to wages, labor being on the increase, in- 
creasing faster, indeed, than the soil can yield the pro- 



RUBBISH CLEARED AWAY. 287 

ducts referred to, and the ratio of increase in demand 
for work being greater than the proportion of foreign 
gold that comes into our circulating medium. Hence 
it is that labor must remain stationary and wages de- 
crease, by the difference between its increase and the 
foreign gold accreted by the government. It must 
be borne in mind that it is only when the balance of 
trade is in our favor that there is anything to be added 
to our stock of money, and then only when paid in 
gold actually shipped here. What money we expend 
in foreign countries is always against us, and what 
they expend here does us no good, unless there is a 
balance in our favor, which arises out of the fact that 
we may happen to sell them more of our goods and at 
a better price than they do us; all of the transactions 
before the balance can be or is determined is through 
the medium of credit money because there is not ac- 
tual money enough to transact the business in cash. 
Some say this is not necessary, but that is a long story, 
the end of which is that it enables speculators to make 
the money and not the people; it is a subterfuge. 

Many of the schemes to increase the circulating 
medium, some of them having been elevated into 
planks in certain political platforms, rest upon a reduc- 
tion of taxes, or at least shifting the burden upon 
shoulders assumed to be better able to bear it. It is 
a rather far-fetched scheme to attempt to help the peo- 
ple by reducing the taxes, when it is so much easier 
and simpler to accomplish the purpose in a more effec- 
tual manner by creating the money to pay them with. 
The idea seems to be to redeem the people and alleviate 
their burdens, by making officialdom honest if not vir- 
tuous, and temper the greed for gold with moderation. 
With the history of the whole world behind us, dem- 
onstrating the impossibility of such a reformation; nay, 
the drowning of the whole of mankind down to one 
family whose descendants were worse than their pre- 
decessors, so much worse, indeed, that drowning was 



288 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

deemed too eas}^ a death and they are to be burned; 
even the putting to a shameful death the Christ, their 
Redeemer; the acknowledged failure of magnificent 
temples to religion, and thousands of millions of treas- 
ure expended in that direction, indicating that the 
greed for gold is ineradicable, yet we blindly grope 
about with schemes to reduce the perquisites of offi- 
cials by reducing taxes. The shifting of the taxes up- 
on other shoulders accomiplishes nothing in the direc- 
tion of alleviating the condition of the poor or assist- 
ing the cause of labor, for they are both more or less 
dependent conditions, and from them and out of them 
would have to be paid the taxes in any event. We 
have had higher valuations, income tax, land tax, rev- 
enue tax, licenses, etc., etc.; they are as numerous as 
the sands upon the seashore, but they are none of 
them practicable. All of them have in mind the laud- 
able object of shifting the burden from the shoulders of 
the poor, but none of them would relieve them by 
so much as the weight of a straw. 

Suppose a few generous-hearted citizens should form 
an association for the purpose of paying all of the 
taxes and thus relieve the people from the entire bur- 
den. What a sigh of relief would go up from the 
hearts of the people? How the newspapers would over- 
flow with gush and portraits and sug-gest monuments 
and medals in honor of such patriotic, heroic citizens 
who become asses to bear the burden of the whole 
people? By and by some crank would discover that 
bread had become a little higher, money was hard to 
get and wages lower. Then that somebody would be- 
gin to think instead of hurrahing, and would soon find 
out, what he might have known before, that the asso- 
ciation of public-spirited citizens would amount to a 
syndicate, wdiich would require for the pa3^ment of 
the taxes the entire circulating medium of the coun- 
try, besides demanding of the people three dollars more 
per capita. Where else could they or where else can 



RUBBISH CLEARED AWAY. 289 

anybody else get the money to pay the taxes with, 
whether, on land, improvements, sugar or salt? It 
would be used over and over again without producing 
any change in our condition, and in the case of limit- 
ing the things out of which taxes should be collected, 
our condition would be worse, in any event no bet- 
ter. A certain amount of money is required to pay 
salaries and expenses, and it must be paid out of our 
own circulating medium, which is growing smaller in 
amount while taxes are increasing. 

A long time ago the citizens of Detroit, Mich., were 
burdened with a very high tax rate, nearly four per 
centum. It was an "outrage" and was made a political 
issue. The party *'in" v/ere ejected by the party "out," 
upon the platform of reducing the tax rate to one dol- 
lar per hundred. It was a great victory. Prayers of 
thanksgiving were offered in the churches, while for 
the rejoicing wicked, beer flowed in torrents. There 
was enough spent in celebrating the victory to pay the 
whole tax for one year at the old rate. When pay- 
day came around, the rejoicers found that they had to 
pay just as 'much actual money as they did before at 
the old rate, with a little added to pay for a new valua- 
tion w^hich had to be raised to meet the city budget. 
On the same theory, it would have been possible to 
realize the sum necessary, on a tax rate of one cent a 
hundred dollars, by merely increasing the valuation. 

Still another plan is proposed: Government owner- 
ship. The government should own the telegraphs, 
railroads and other means of transportation. This is a 
strange proposition to mal<e in a nation based upon 
the system of government which supposes the people 
to be the rulers. In other words, the people of this 
country are expected to sell their own property to 
themselves. If the people cannot now manage the af- 
fairs of their own government, how are they going to 
do it when it is complicated with railroads, telegraphs, 
canal boats, prairie schooners and the like? It is not 



290 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

proposed to confiscate these properties; on the con- 
trary, the authors purpose that they shah be paid for. 
They do not say out of what moneys, but we are at 
hberty to assume that the money will be printed as fast 
as steam can work the presses. It would seem that 
before purchasing railroads, etc., the people should 
turn their attention to the Post Ofifice Department and 
ascertain why its deficiency runs up into nearly twenty 
miUions of dollars annually. 

The government did do some little railroad business, 
but it was not very profitable, as the history of the Pa- 
cific railroads will demonstrate. It came out behind 
to the amount, in round numbers, of about two hun- 
dred millions of dollars, and finally had to give them 
away for a song to private individuals. If we had a 
system of government like that of Germany or Russia, 
for instance, it might be feasible, but even then the 
capital of the whole country would be centralized more 
than it is now; it would be President Jackson's bank 
of the United States over again, in which case the 
people of this country would be absolutely dependent 
upon the government for existence, as is the case in 
Gerrnany and Russia. Government ownership means 
the impoverishment of a free people. It is not to be 
supposed that the five thousand millions of dollars of 
indebtedness upon the railroads and the equities of the 
owners, amounting to thousands of millions more, can 
be paid according to the Christian science doctrine, 
by wishing it. No, it must come out of the people, out 
of their bread, their wages, their blood, and when the 
indebtedness matures, how is it going to be paid? 
Not by renewals, for they would be credit money ac- 
cretions and not an increase of actual money; a con- 
dition would ensue that has been alluded to in another 
chapter; labor would be still ground down and the 
people always confronted with the dread spectre of 
poverty. The railroads and other corporations would 
be only too glad to sell out to the government, but 



RUBBISH CLEARED AWAY. 291 

they know, as does the reader, that they never could 
be paid. 

All of these wild schemes originate in foreign lands 
and are transplanted here by dreamers, whose dreams 
are restless nightmares. There, the conditions are dis- 
similar and the schemes to rectify those conditions are 
evolved out of nothing and mean nothing. There is 
no help, no opening through which the light may 
penetrate at all, except in producing money out of the 
raw or crude material. That would at once offset the 
domination of the money power and hold it in check. 
Six million five hundred voters thought so at the last 
Presidential election, and there would have been 
enough more to have brought it about had it not been 
for the abject servility of labor itself, and its domina- 
tion by threats of loss of employment if it dared at- 
tempt to seek relief. 

There is no power on earth that can bring relief, no 
scheme can be devised that will or can do other than 
tighten the chains upon the people than that of oppos- 
ing money with money. We have reached the point 
which President Jackson foresaw, when the banking 
privilege, increasing with the growth of the country, 
has plunged it into a slough of corruption, and when 
its unlimited power is so directed that it interferes with 
Congress and the State Legislatures, and is shackling 
the liberties of the people. It required twenty years' 
coalition of the money power and the feudal system 
to beat down the power of one man, Bonaparte, and 
how long will it require for millions of free men to 
regulate, not crush, the monster that rears its head 
amongst us in proud defiance? 



CHAPTER XL. 

CHEAP MONEY— DEAR MONEY. 

To prevent the people from suffering through ''cheap 
money" they are not permitted to have any kind. 

It does not require the wisdom of a Solomon to un- 
derstand that when money can be had at a low rate of 
interest it is "cheap money," and that when it controls 
a high rate of interest for its use it is ''dear money." 
Yet through some mental strabismus the idea of 
*'cheap money" is always attached to silver coin. 
Even if this be true we can only conclude from it that 
gold coin is "dear money," a fact which is really unde- 
niable, for no person ever heard of "cheap" gold 
money. On the contrary, every effort is being made to 
increase its "dearness." The "cheap money" stigma 
attached to silver is proven by referring to the con- 
stantly fluctuating and continually low market price of 
silver bullion, and the steady m.arket price of gold is 
regarded as the essence of its "dearness." We compare 
silver to wheat and other products, but class gold with 
diamonds. But this is contrary to every rule of politi- 
cal economy, inasmuch as it is attaching an intrinsic 
value to money, which is not permissible in any case. 

Our silver dollars are worth only forty-five cents. 
Very well, admitted; but why, then, does the govern- 
ment charge us one dollar for them? It cannot be 
for the reason that the government is seeking to re- 
coup for having paid too much for silver, for that 
would be putting the government in the position of a 
contemptible tradesman, a pawnbroker, who buys 

292 



CHEAP MONEY— DEAR MONEY. 293 

high, and when caught on a fahing market, cheats his 
customers to save himself from loss. If the power of 
the government can make forty-five cents' worth of 
silver worth a dollar, is not this a repudiation of the in- 
trinsic value of money? The government does not 
make the distinction in the case of paper money, for 
it does not consider the condition of the paper mar- 
ket as it does not of the gold market. It therefore 
considers gold and paper as standards, whereas silver, 
the mainstay of labor, is made the universal scapegoat. 
The United States Supreme Court, in the case of Juil- 
lard vs. Greenman, no U. S., 421, expressly repudiates 
all distinction, but nevertheless, it is made by the gov- 
ernment as managed by the money power, in order to 
furnish a perpetual basis for speculation, to the detri- 
ment of the general welfare of the people. A paper 
dollar is always a dollar, so also is a gold doUar, not by 
virtue of any intrinsic value in either, but because the 
government so ordains; but when it comes to a silver 
dollar, which the same government says is likewise a 
dohar, the money power steps in and says it is only 
forty-five cents, or whatever the shifting market price 
of silver bullion may happen to be; a valuation 
which should not govern the power that creates 
money. Upon this theory, and taking the monometal- 
ists' word for it, the money power is clearing fifty-five 
cents on every gold dollar, taking away from labor the 
amount of its production in extracting silver from the 
soil and keeping it. It is the same kind of a specula- 
tion that realized a profit of one dollar and sixty-five 
cents on every gold dollar, out of United States Treas- 
ury notes, a profit which labor paid; a taking advan- 
'tage of the necessities of the government, just as the 
farmers of Long Island did when the demand for milk 
for the use of dying soldiers at Camp WikofT induced 
them to raise the price of milk from six cents per quart 
to twenty-six cents. Both of them examples of thrift 
that proclaims its unswerving honesty to the extent of 



294 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

robbing the government, and forcing millions of people 
into poverty and a multitude to the verge of starva- 
tion, even to the extent of starving helpless soldiers. 

Foreigners say that we are a wonderful people, and 
we are so indeed, for there is no other people on earth 
that would submit to such degradation of thrift with- 
out making a united effort to at least regulate it. The 
money that will benefit the people is called "cheap, 
dishonest" money, and that which enriches speculators, 
syndicates, trusts, bankers and brokers and impover- 
ishes the people, is the only "honest" money. 

When Labor shall refrain from wandering about 
among palaces, stately edifices and monuments of capi- 
tal, and from saying, "All this wealth labor created," 
and get behind the stately edifices, etc., and read there 
the first principle placarded, the one that theorists 
stumble over without seeing, "Labor produced the 
money that builded me," they will be at the corner- 
stone of the foundation upon which wealth is erected. 
Money is the corner-stone, the essence, out of which 
grows wealth, and Labor creates that foundation. We 
stick at so-called "wealth," the creature of money, and 
attach Labor to its creation, and we strain our backs 
looking up at the "sky-scrapers" of flimsiness erected 
on the foundation which Labor laid. We fish in shal- 
low waters and catch small fry, when we should be 
harpooning whales in deep water. 

Paul Kruger, the President of the Dutch Republic, 
presented Pope Leo XIIL with a diamond estimated 
to be worth four millions of dollars. That diamond 
will be styled "wealth" by some, and if labor produces 
wealth, it produced four millions of dollars in the dia- 
mond. That is as plain as a pikestaff. But labor did 
nothing of the kind. It merely produced in that dia- 
mond what it cost to dig it out and cut it. The bal- 
ance of the estimated value is fictitious, a speculative 
estimate, and labor has nothing more to do with that 
than it has with the price of wildcat stock in the Ex- 



CHEAP MONEY— DEAR MONEY. 295 

change. The estimate is based upon a comparison 
with other diamonds, and if it could be sold in the 
market for four millions of dollars, labor would not be 
entitled to a penny of it beyond the wages paid in mak- 
ing it saleable. If it came to putting it upon the as- 
sessment roll for taxation, its wealth would diminish 
to a shadow. The reason why labor did not produce 
it is because it is not money, and not an addition to 
the circulating medium. It possesses a variable value, 
whereas money has a fixed value established by the 
government. 

The assessor of the city and county of San Fran- 
cisco, in looking over the return affidavits of property 
owners, discovered that in the "returns" of "money'"' 
the population of the city and county were suddenly 
reduced to a penniless condition. Those who had mil- 
lions of dollars returned a few thousand. The asses- 
sor, having personal knowledge of the fact that Mr. 
John Doe, for instance, had on deposit in various 
banks the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars instead of the paltry one thousand in his return, 
raised the amount to somewhere near the truth, and 
did it in every other case. The roar of outraged inno- 
cence ended in a contest in court, where it was held 
that while the assessor had the power to raise the es- 
timated value of all other personal property, because 
it was all fictitious anyhow, yet he could not increase 
an estimate of money, for that would be increasing its 
value, a thing not allowable for the reason that money 
had a fixed value wdiich could not be increased or 
diminished. So a deficiency was prevented by increas- 
ing the value of the personal property of those who 
had no money, and money allowed to escape. 

There never has been a ruling in any court to the 
contrary, that money bears upon its face its own value 
and worth, and that it cannot be increased or dimin- 
ished. It embodies within itself all wealth, and it is 
the creator of what political economists are pleased to 



296 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

term "wealth," the value of which is determined by the 
amount of money into which it is capable of being ex- 
changed. So we keep returning to the same point, 
and cannot get away from it very far. It is the truth, 
and will not down; our floundering about among vain 
theories does not disprove any part of it by so much 
as the weight of a hair. Wealth is money, and labor 
producing money in this sense, but in no other, may 
be said to produce wealth, but not the fictitious value of 
it. Labor receives two hundred thousand dollars for 
the erection of a building which the owner sells for a 
million. Labor created nothing so far as the building 
is concerned, it matters not whether the building is 
called "wealth" or anything else. What labor did 
create was the money paid out in wages and the money 
received by the owner. If it created the wealth repre- 
sented by the building, then who created the money 
that went into and came out of it? It was the use of 
the money which had already been created that went 
into and came out of the building. There can be no 
double creation of the same thing, or a re-creation of 
what has already been created. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

PERPETUATING PREJUDICE. 

David said in his haste, "All men are liars," but the 

reader will say the same thing after mature 

deliberation. 

It was once declared by the astronomer, Richard 
A. Proctor, that the phenomena of the sidereal heavens 
could be equally as scientifically demonstrated upon 
the theory of the fixity of the planets, as upon the as- 
sumption of their revolution around the sun. The 
matter is of very little importance to us either way, in- 
asmuch as it is beyond our power to establish it one 
way or the other, but if it was of any financial benefit, 
or of any pecuniary value, it goes without saying that 
there are not a few who would take the matter into 
their own hands and insist upon the sun revolving 
about the planets. 

There is as much, if not more, uncertainty in the 
various theories of political economy as there is in 
the science of astronomy, and these theories may all 
or any of them be proven true or false, as desired, and 
like the old sailor's manner of boxing the compass, 
they may be read backwards as well as forwards with 
equal efifect. But there is this difference between the 
theories of astronomy and political economy; the latter 
is of great interest to certain persons who are in the 
possession of what we call ''wealth," inasmuch as some 
of the theories may add to that wealth, if properly es- 
tablished as dogmas for the general public to swallow 
and swear by. 

It was a French historian who declared long ago 
297 



298 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

that history for the past three hundred years has been 
a conspiracy against the truth, and the same may be 
said of most of our educational text-books in the hands 
of the youth of the schools. They are so arranged and 
clouded as to furnish them with false doctrines and 
false principles. When a lawyer is preparing a brief, 
his investigations, the lawyer finds that corporation law 
he naturally seeks the latest authorities, for he knows 
very well that the court will base its opinion upon them 
to the exclusion of ancient ones, ignoring the stare 
decisis to follow recent obiter dicta. In the course of 
his investigations, the lawyer finds that corporation law 
presents many wide divergences from the corporation 
law of other days, and peering more closely into the 
reason he discovers that the recent opinions are based 
upon the reasoning of text-books prepared by corpor- 
ation lawyers in the interests of their clients. So our 
lawyer loses his case because the recent authorities are 
designedly not in conformity with first principles. The 
same thing happens in the case of municipal law which, 
though exceedingly simple, speaking from the ele- 
ments of it, yet, by elevating it into the domain of 
science under the name of "civics" and adding a little 
here, with taking away a little there, altering the com- 
plexion a trifle and clouding it in places so as to make 
it conform better to the opinions of those who want 
it to be what they desire it to be and not what it ac- 
tually is, the student is led to imbibe false doctrine and 
erroneous ideas, to such an extent that he cannot be 
reasoned out of the notion that municipal law is 
greater than the organic. 

All this is prefatory to the statement that capital 
has been and is engaged in a conspiracy against the 
truth of certain principles of political economy, or has 
twisted them out of shape from motives of self-inter- 
est and for purposes of gain, until even the mass of 
laboring men have come to believe them, and that be- 
lief cannot be argued out of them^ they even refusing 



- PERPETUATING PREJUDICE. 299 

to abandon them when they have brought the wolf to 
their door. It is true that some of the rehgious sects 
prepare a translation of the Scriptures in conformity 
with the belief manufactured by them and in opposi- 
tion to the beliefs of other sects. We all know that 
religion is severely barred out of the public schools 
on account of the fear possessed by a multitude of 
sects that the young will imbibe religious and moral 
ideas which will carry them to heaven over some other 
road than that monopolized by some one or the other of 
them, or that they will become good citizens through 
the acquisition of some virtue that is not elevated into 
a trust or syndicate of religious morality. But they are 
indoctrinated with other erroneous and pernicious 
ideas, of more moment to them in their social rela- 
tions when their school life shall have ended, than the 
eternal squabbling over religious doctrines. 

These insidious ideas relate among others to sub- 
jects connected with political economy, which are laid 
down as axioms and accepted as are proverbs and sen- 
tentious aphorisms, remaining fixed in the mind in 
after life and difftcult of removal. If a child be told in 
his innocent days that the moon is a piece of tin, that 
fact will remain fixed in his plastic brain and will not 
entirely disappear even after he becomes an expert in 
astronomy. He will always possess a doubt, and in 
his mind will appear the proposition, "It may be a 
piece of tin." Error is spread by engendering doubts, 
and the truth is hidden in the clouds. Self-interest is 
a system which dominates thought and perpetuates 
error, and feeds the human mind with fictitious doc- 
trine in the schools and in the text-books, as well as 
in scientific works, until, by diversity of opinion, the 
truth is eliminated, or presents the appearance of error. 

It is owing to the perversity of erroneous teaching 
that many are persuaded into the belief that wages are 
the product of capital and that wages decrease when 
the number of laborers increase, that is, labor com- 



300 THE DESTIRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

peting with labor will result in low wages. In the 
first instance it is said to be self-evident that capital 
hires labor and pays it wages, therefore wages are the 
product of capital. In the second instance it is the 
pernicious notion that there are already too many peo- 
ple on earth and the struggle for the survival of the 
fittest has begun in earnest. 

One cannot reason with a poor man pressed by his 
necessities to find work at any rate of wages, and it is 
ridiculous to put in his hands a learned disquisition on 
political economy, bearing upon the relations between 
capital and labor. He only knows that he v/ants work 
and that he cannot get it unless he finds somebody 
with money to hire him. He finds others like him- 
self, out of work, and together they look over the situ- 
ation to find as fact, and not theory, that there is no 
money invested in labor. It matters little to him 
whether his labor produces money or money produces 
labor, for he has no money. When he and his fel- 
lows pass by some stately edifice, they do not envy the 
owner his possession of it, he says, and they all say, 
'*I wish I had his money." To a political economist 
the edifice would represent wealth and the money oc- 
cupy a subordinate place. He would therefore say, 
'T wish I owned that house." The laborer would un- 
doubtedly possess more practical common sense than 
the scientist, for with the money he could directly pur- 
chase whatever he might need, which could not be 
done with the edifice, unless he mortgaged it or ob- 
tained rent from it. So we bring wealth back to 
money, and after all is said it is wealth. Hence the 
flat declaration derived from necessity, that money is 
the only wealth, all the others being products of money 
by purchase, and from what has been said on previous 
pages, that money is the product of labor. 

From this point of view it is clear that money is al- 
ways less in amount when labor is not producing it 
than when labor is all employed in creating it. It may 



PERPETUATING PREJUDICE. 301 

be said that where there is no money there is no labor, 
and it would be true, but that does not prove anything 
against the position that labor alone produces money, 
for, as has been made clear, money cannot make or 
produce itself. ' hat a strange sacrifice of its own in- 
terests when capital, assuming to be the parent of 
labor, reduces that labor below- the existing point to 
its own detriment! 

The Supreme Court of the United States, in the 
case referred to in the last chapter, declares that "Con- 
gress has the constitutional power to direct, at any 
time in its discretion, unlimited issues of Treasury 
notes with all the legal attributes of coin. In other 
words, the National Legislature may make any kind 
of paper currency a legal tender in payment of private 
debts, and this power may be exercised whenever a 
condition of affairs obtains which that body shall con- 
sider to be an exigency." Even though Congress 
should issue an unlimited number of Treasury notes, 
nobody but the banks and speculators would be any 
the richer for it, for the reason already given, that such 
notes are' not given away, but must be purchased the 
same as if created out of gold or silver, by labor, with 
this exception, which should be ever present in the 
mind of the reader, that gold and silver are actual 
products extracted from the soil by labor and of im- 
mediate benefit to labor, whereas paper money is not 
of any benefit, however it may be produced, except to 
the limited labor employed in the manufacture of it. 

It will be perceived from the above decision that the 
Supreme Court placed no stress upon the idea that 
gold or silver is of any importance as a redemption 
medium of the paper money, although the latter are 
merely promises to pay and are of the nature of ties or 
links which hold together the various commercial in- 
terests of the country in a solid, reliable union, which 
disowns individual credit money to the extent of its 
issue and accepts the faith of the government, which 



302 THE DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY. 

means confidence and prosperity. It is clear that the 
Court had in mind the principle of political economy 
which repudiates the attachment of any intrinsic value 
to either coin or paper money, impliedly reasserting 
the well-known and received doctrine that the stamp 
of the government, whether upon metal or paper, is 
documentary evidence to the possessor of either, that 
he is interested in the possessions of the government 
to an amount equal to the money in his hands. There 
is no redemption to be supposed, for none is required. 
It is not denied that in case of foreign commerce, metal 
money is required, but the idea sought to be developed 
here is that paper money is equally money capable of 
being applied to the payment of private debts as are 
gold and silver. We attach too much importance to 
foreign trade which, after all, is only a balance and 
then only when it is in our favor. In 1898 it was one 
hundred an--^ seventy-three millions of dollars, not 
enough to increase the per capita amount of our cir- 
culating medium sufBciently to pay our annual taxes, 
and it is constantly decreasing through our ill-advised 
theory of a protective tariff, which is as pernicious as a 
contraction of the circulating medium. It does not 
protect labor, but adds to the emoluments of the specu- 
lators. It has diverted our shipping to foreigners, is 
spurring on foreign governments to get rid of us ex- 
cept for purposes of garnbling. The transfer of our 
cattle trade to the Argentine Republic of South 
America, whose immense pampas are not hampered 
by ''no fence" laws, and the opening up of the fertile 
steppes of Russia to the production of grain, against 
which we will be unable to compete in a few years, are 
as nothing to our wiseacres when compared with the 
valuable interests of some tin-plate manufactory, in a 
country that does not produce tin enough to make 
a wash boiler for cleaning the rags of our political 
parties. With our mountains full of silver we rely 
upon a balance of trade to add to our stock of money 



PERPETUATING PREJUDICE. 303 

and cut off our own citizens from increasing its pro- 
duction. We fear the day when labor shall be re- 
garded as the producer of money, for then there will be 
no poor to be robbed, no money to be coined out of 
the bone and muscle of our citizens. A laborer then 
will not be compelled to cringe before his master lest 
he lose his small wage and starve, for he will be able 
to take that from the bosom of mother earth which 
will buy him bread. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

THE BLISTER ON A WOODEN LEG. 

The reader is expected to draw his own ''Moral" from 
this chapter. 

Once upon a time a man, not feeHng very well, con- 
sulted a physician. The latter felt his pulse, looked at 
his tongue and finally asked him how he felt. ''Well, 
doctor," replied the man, "I don't feel well anywhere, 
I feel bad all over; aches and pains, you know, par- 
ticularly in my head, which is stufifed up and heavy, 

and " "Ah, I see," interrupted the physician, 

"pain in your head. A mere congestion, nothing 
more. Now you go home, my man, and put this blis- 
ter on your leg and leave it there as long as you can. 
It will hurt some, but will do you good by drawing 
the blood away from your head." 

So the man went home and did as he was directed. 
But it happened that he had a wooden leg, and remem- 
bering what the doctor said about its hurting him, he 
concluded he would avoid the pain by clapping the 
blister upon his wooden leg. 

A few days afterwards the man became really ill 
c.rA sent post haste for the physician. "Why, why, 
how's this? Not well yet? H'm, pulse high, tongue 
badly coated? Well, well, that blister should have 
cured you. Did you put it on as I told you?" "Yes," 
said the man, "I put it on as soon as I got home." 
"How long did you leave it on?" inquired the physi- 
cian. "Why," answered the man, "I never took it 
off, it's on yet." "What?" exclaimed the physician 

304 



THE BLISTER ON A WOODEN LEG. 305 

in astonishment, "a blister on your leg for four days? 
Why, it must be taken off, that's what ails you. Let 
me see." The physician lifted the covering and there, 
behold! an elegant blister, whose powers of suction 
were exerted in vain upon the wooden leg. *'Well, 

ril be " but the physician remembered his morals 

just in time to save himself, and taking up his hat 
and pill box, departed, leaving his patient to his own 
devices, as evidently not worth curing. 

Reader, when you are afflicted with any political 
complaint, where do you apply the blister? 



THE END. 



B00K5 

By the author of «*The Destruction of Povcrty.*» 

NOW ON SALE. 

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SOON TO BE ISSUED. 

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